Stephen Luczo makes his first open-market purchase of AT&T shares in just over two years
An AT&T Inc. board member scooped up nearly $1 million in stock earlier this week in his first open-market purchase in over two years.
Stephen Luczo bought 62,500 shares of AT&T T, +0.76% Monday at an average price of $15.55, according to a Wednesday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He paid about $972,000 for the batch of stock.
The transaction was Luczo’s first open-market purchase since he bought up 100,000 shares on Nov. 8, 2021, SEC records indicate.
“Luczo deserves credit for continuing to invest in the company and aligning himself with shareholders, but his buying at [AT&T] has not been well-timed,” VerityData research director Ben Silverman told MarketWatch in emailed comments. “While the most recent buy represents a positive data point, Luczo’s buying track record at [AT&T] just doesn’t give us confidence, and [AT&T] insiders as a group haven’t been smart buyers for the past decade.”
AT&T declined to comment on Luczo’s purchase.
Luczo, a former chief executive of Seagate Technology Holdings PLC STX, +1.40%, has been on AT&T’s board since November 2019. He made his latest purchase through a trust and now owns 395,000 AT&T shares through that trust. Luczo owns another 167,000 shares through a family trust.
VerityData’s Silverman noted that Luczo has had a better track record with his insider activity on prior boards and in his Seagate CEO role. While leading Seagate, “he transacted a series of five buys that turned out to be smartly timed,” said Silverman, who tracks areas like insider purchasing and corporate buybacks.
“Luczo was also a smart buyer during a short tenure … as a director of Microsoft,” Silverman said, and he’s made “generally well-timed” purchases since joining Morgan Stanley’s MS, -0.03% board in 2019.
Shares of AT&T have declined 14% so far this year and are on track to log their fourth annual decline in as many years.
