At least one top
Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) executive thinks the stock is a good buy. The company said in
an SEC filing today that co-Chief Financial Officer Michael J. Angelakis bought almost 38,000 shares at prices ranging from $26.34 to $26.38 on June 8. The $998,000 purchase follows sales by Chief Executive Brian Roberts of
$9.4 million and President Stephen Burke of
$6.4 million in recent weeks. Angelakis joined Comcast last year from private equity firm Providence Equity Partners Inc. He shares the CFO position with John Alchin. Shares of the company have been held down recently amid worries about increased competition from the likes of
Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) in its core business. That's why Wall Street is paying close attention to the sales by Comcast top executives. InsiderScore says the executives "were selling from November 2004 to January 2005 and again in August 2005, ahead of a deterioration in the stock price that began in September 2005 and last until April 2006."
Barrons (sub. required) quotes InsiderScore's director of research, Ben Silverman, as wondering how much upside there is for the stock after Comcast reported robust growth. "It's forcing me to ask the question: Is the stock priced for perfection?" Asked about the purchase, Comcast spokesman John Demming said Angelakis made it from his own funds - not from stock options - for personal "investment purposes." When Angelakis joined Comcast in November, he received a signing bonus of $5 million and an award of vested stock units with a market value equal to another $5 million. -
Jonathan Berr and
Miriam Hill
