On October 14th I posted the following article ‘Are directors buying shares?’, prompted by your questions.
‘As at October 10th 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 run the Digitallook screen again, and find that over the past month, to today, companies in the FTSE 350 which exhibit cumulative director share dealing activity greater than GBP 50k are as follows:
6 companies show net selling, and 59 companies show net buying.
Over the past week, the screen shows 3 companies showing net selling, and 18 companies showing net buying.
This indicates that Buyers outnumber Sellers by between 6:1 and 10:1.
A very powerful signal that company directors think shares are cheap.
I guess valuation has something to do with it. The FTSE 100 is roughly 10% lower, and the FTSE 250 very roughly 20% lower over the one month period (compared to the one month to October 10th). Anecdotally most of the buying activity has occurred in FTSE 250 stocks.
For followthedirectors comments on companies exhibiting director buying activity click here (This is not a comprehensive list, but companies that we believe warrant comment).
For other general market commentary see Market Musings here.
For the excellent Digitallook screening tool go to Digitallook.com
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November 2, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Are directors buying shares? « followthedirectors… a study of directors share dealings
[…] October 14, 2008 in Market musings | Tags: Directors buying, directors buys, directors dealings, Directors selling, directors share dealings [See also subsequent post on October 31st: ‘ Directors ARE buying shares. Buys vs Sells 10:1’] […]
November 2, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Weekly review Nov 2nd- Directors signal market bottom, UK Engineers, Allscripts-Misys, Carnival. « followthedirectors… a study of directors share dealings
[…] I was surprised on Friday to see such a turnaround in directors sentiment ‘Directors ARE buying shares. Buys outnumber Sells 10 to 1′. […]
December 16, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Directors buying waned in November « followthedirectors… a study of directors share dealings
[…] December 16, 2008 in Directors buying, Directors selling, Market musings | Tags: directors dealings, Market musings, UK stockmarket From the last week of October to the first week of November the market rallyed by over 20%. Directors were actively buying, outnumbering sells by at least 5 to 1, a huge sentiment change given that the status quo for directors transactions is generally between 1 and 1 1/2 (buys) to 1 (sells). See October 30th ‘Directors ARE buying shares’ […]
May 4, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Directors selling shares - is the market expensive? « followthedirectors… a study of directors share dealings
[…] Purchases vs sales had moved from evens to as high as 10:1 (October 31st: Directors ARE buying shares- Buys outnumber Sells 10:1) […]