Facebook Inc (FB) Exec Sells Stock As Some Say Shares Will Soar

Facebook Inc stock has already been performing very well, but the company has the potential for significant growth going forward if recent initiatives pay off

Facebook Inc ( NASDAQ:FB) Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer revealed in a regulatory filing that he has exercised some of his restricted stock units and then sold them right after. The executive also sold additional shares according to filings from earlier this week.

Schroepfer sells Facebook stock

The social network's CTO exercised 20,000 restricted stock units on Thursday and then immediately turned around and sold those Class A common shares. The units Schroepfer exercised were due to expire on Jan. 11, 2019.

He got $74.01 per share by unloading the stock, raking in $1.5 million in the process. The share sale left him with about 321,500 shares of Facebook stock.

Where will Facebook stock go from here?

There's been a steady stream of Facebook executives unloading shares for quite some time, with Schroepfer being one of the most frequent to sell shares. The social network's stock slumped after management's recent comments that they expect a 55% to 75% increase in expenses for next year. Facebook is investing heavily in growth, but investors seem to be unsure about whether those investments will pay off.

InvestorPlace contributor Greg Gambone thinks those investments will indeed pay off. He named six of Facebook's initiatives that he thinks will make a big difference in the company's future growth. For example, he expects the social network's $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp to pay off eventually, particularly if management decides to monetize it beyond the subscription fee of 99 cents per year.

Additionally, Facebook Inc ( NASDAQ:FB) acquired Instagram, which has arguably become the hottest new social network as teens show signs of gravitating toward it rather than Facebook itself. He also likes CEO Mark Zuckerberg's Internet.org initiative, which has been painted a philanthropic effort but really will expand Facebook's reach by bringing internet into developing markets where people are not yet online.

Gambone also expects Facebook Inc ( NASDAQ:FB) to make big moves in the mobile payments industry, suggesting that the social network could end up being the 'Goliath' of the industry, possibly by implementing a system that's similar to PayPal.

The company also recently acquired Oculus, the maker of virtual reality headsets, and shows signs of rolling out location-based mobile ads, which he sees as offering a treasure trove of revenue for Facebook Inc ( NASDAQ:FB) in the future.