Daily Archive

[See also May 4 post: ‘Directors share sales outnumber buys- Is the market expensive?’]

[See also subsequent post on October 31st: ‘ Directors ARE buying shares. Buys vs Sells 10:1’]

A question many of you have is whether directors are currently buying shares, and presumably does that indicate a turning point in the market?

The straight answer is ‘no more than usual’.

If you use digitallooks excellent visual tools facility, you can ask them to show you the number of directors buying or selling over a certain period.

As at last Friday, the number of companies in the FTSE 350 indicating net directors dealings over GBP 50k over the period I asked for (1, 3 and 12 months) were as follows:

1 month to October 10 2008:

26 companies showed net selling over a cumulative GBP 50k, and 32 companies showed net buying.

3 months to October 10th 2008:

58 companies showed net selling, and 54 companies net buying

12 months to October 10th 2008:

144 companies showed net selling, and 130 companies net buying.

I’ve just today run the analysis for the last seven days (to October 13th) and it shows

4 companies showing net selling, and 9 companies showing net buying.

I believe that this is not statistically significant due to the short period and the low number of companies exhibiting activity. Please also bear in mind that digitallook uses data as announced by the stock exchange, which will include the receipt by directors of scrip dividends, share options, and Incentive Plan subscriptions.

In followthedirectors research I exclude all Incentive Plan and dividend receipts, and any sales that are made to pay tax on options exercised. I aim to look at shares sold to receive cash, or shares bought with cash.

For a list of directors dealing activity use the category criteria on the top left of this page, or click on the following: Directors Buys, Directors Sales.