Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts sold $20.41 million worth of his stock in the company on Tuesday, a new SEC filing has revealed.
The 469,515 Class A shares, which represent a small portion of Roberts’ Comcast ownership, were awards of restricted stock units and options that were acquired as part of his compensation in January and March of this year.
In addition to his Class A holdings, Roberts owns all outstanding Class B shares, giving him 33.3% of voting power. According to the filing, Comcast has approximately 3.82 billion shares outstanding total.
The transaction, which is for planning purposes, came after Comcast recently announced it would spin off its cable network portfolio into a separate, publicly traded company that will reach 70 million U.S. households.
That move, which is expected to take a year and will be tax-free to Comcast shareholders, will not include Peacock, Bravo, the NBC broadcast network, NBC Sports, Telemundo, NBCU’s local stations nor the company’s film and television studios. The cable network portfolio generated about $7 billion in revenue for the 12-month period ending Sept. 30.
SpinCo, as its currently being referred to in the interim, will have a dual class share structure that mirrors Comcast’s, giving Roberts a one-third voting stake. However, he will not be on the spun-off entity’s board, a knowledgeable insider previously told TheWrap.
Shares of Comcast are up 2% in the past year, but are down 1.6% year-to-date and 2.7% in the past five years.
