Verizon Chairman and CEO Hans Vestberg.
Noam Galai/Getty Images for Verizon Media
Verizon Communications stock didn’t get a bounce from a fourth-quarter report, and Chairman and CEO Hans Vestberg bought up shares of the telecom giant.
Verizon (ticker: VZ) reported an in-line fourth quarter on the morning of Jan. 25, and shares ended the day slightly lower. Verizon stock slid 3.6% the next day.
That day, Jan. 26, Vestberg paid $1 million for 19,000 Verizon shares, a per-share average price of $52.55. According to a form he filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Vestberg now owns 149,764 shares.
Verizon didn’t immediately respond to a request to make Vestberg available for comment.
The stock purchase is Vestberg’s first on the open market since he joined Verizon in April 2017; most of his other shares were received from the vesting of restricted stock units. The former CEO of Ericsson (ERIC) was named CEO of Verizon in August 2018. Vestberg added the Verizon chairman title in March 2019.
Verizon stock ended 2021 with a 12% drop. Warren Buffett
‘s Berkshire Hathaway ( BRKb) disclosed a large stake in Verizon early in 2021. Earnings through the year were upbeat. But Verizon stock weakened in the second half of the year, setting an intraday low of $49.69 on Dec. 31; it hadn’t traded at that level since March 2020.
Inside Scoop is a regular Barron’s feature covering stock transactions by corporate executives and board members—so-called insiders—as well as large shareholders, politicians, and other prominent figures. Due to their insider status, these investors are required to disclose stock trades with the Securities and Exchange Commission or other regulatory groups.
Write to Ed Lin at [email protected] and follow @BarronsEdLin.
