CEOs in banking and tech are cashing out their stock while the market is tumbling on fears of a possible recession and tariffs.
Among the sellers, which have cumulatively sold more than half-a-billion dollars in company shares, are
JPMorgan Chase
CEO Jamie Dimon,
Meta
CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and
Palo Alto Networks
CEO Nikesh Arora, according to data provider The Washington Service.
All of the stock sales were executed via a 10b5-1 trading plan, which helps executives defend themselves in running afoul of insider trading regulations by scheduling trades in advance.
Dimon led the pack in number of shares sold by cashing in more than 866,361 shares valued at about $233.7 million late last month. Although the sale was pre-scheduled and part of Dimon’s plan to
sell 1 million
of the 8.6 million shares he and his family control in 2025, it came as the company’s stock is slumping amid a decline in the overall market. Since Dimon sold on Feb. 20, JPMorgan’s stock is down about 14%. Dimon sold JPMorgan stock for the
first time ever
last year, kicking it off with a $150 million sale in February 2024.
Zuckerberg started 2025 by extending his stock sales from the previous year. Among the banking and tech CEOs who recently sold shares, he topped the list for the highest value recouped. The Meta CEO sold 431,858 shares for a total of $307.2 million between Feb. 3 and Feb. 21. The February pre-arranged stock sales came after Zuckerberg sold more than $2.2 billion worth of sales last year, according to a
Fortune
analysis
. Although Meta stock hit an all-time-high close to $728 in February, the stock has not been immune to the market’s recent shakeups. Meta’s shares have fallen 16% since Zuckerberg sold his shares in February.
Finally, Arora, the CEO of cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks, sold $143.8 million worth of shares via a trading plan in February. He sold an equal number of shares in March and took home an extra $1.6 million and change, marking a total of nearly $290 million worth of stock sales in two months. The company’s stock has declined 5.8% since Nikesh sold.
The stock market plummeted Monday, after President Trump refused to rule out the possibility of the U.S. entering a recession this year. In an interview with
Fox
News
over the weekend,
Trump was noncommittal
about whether the U.S. would face a recession this year.
“I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition, because what we’re doing is very big,” he said.
Trump’s recent comments echo those of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who said during an interview next week that the U.S. economy could
“roll a bit”
as the administration emphasizes private over public spending.
All three major indices
fell
as of market close Monday. The
Nasdaq
declined by 4%, marking its worst trading day
since 2022
as tech stocks extended losses from last week. Among the biggest losers Monday were social network Reddit and stock trading platform Robinhood, which both collapsed by just under 20%. The S&P 500 also fell by 2.7% while the
Dow
Jones Industrial Average gave up nearly 900 points.
