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Axis Shield (ASD, 307p) (website) is an old favourite of mine. I met the company, and at the same time noticed directors buying in Spring 2005 at prices almost double where they were a year earlier. The stock then continued to perform, moving up 50% within months.
Now I see that Erik Hornnaess, a non exec director but previously Chairman of Axis before their merger in 1999, has been buying shares which have outperformed the market by 40% so far this year.
Between September 3rd and 15th, Hornnaess has bought 20,000 shares at 320p, taking his holding to 125,961 shares. Four of his colleagues had earlier this year (January to April) also bought shares, all around the 270p level. They are Keen (non exec Chairman), McAndrew (previously non exec Chairman), Hermansen (CFO) and Gilham (CEO).
Signal strength: MEDIUM
This is a small cap company with a market cap of only GBP 150m. Be patient and you will be rewarded.
New World Resources (NWR, 900p) is a Czech and Central European coal miner, producing coking coal and thermal coal.
NWR has a secondary listing in London, and caught my attention last week when two directors bought GBP 30k-40k each at above 1050p. They were followed this week by three more, investing GBP 35k to GBP 250k each, a not inconsiderable sum, at prices between 718p and 940p.
The stock has halved since they produced interim results at the end of August (link to company website). I shalln’t [how do you spell this word] attempt to analyse the results, but the main two points were a huge jump in operating cash flow (172%) due to prices, and a big jump in costs (15% underlying).
Conclusion: Five directors buying (2 execs, three non execs), good size (GBP 35k to 250k), and a significant increase in shareholding (25% to 100% of existing holding) warrant a STRONG signal.
Risk factors include: secondary listing in London, relatively recent IPO (May).
For the official announcements of directors dealings in NWR go to the London Stock Exchange ‘Market News’ website, and type ‘NWR’ in the ‘name/code’ box.
I want to revisit Shire (SHP, 911p). 
In February David Mott, a non exec with a great pedigree, initiated a position in Shire by investing GBP 150k, saying ‘Shire is one of the most interesting companies in the industry with an impressive recent track record of launches and an equally exciting pipeline’ (see ‘David Mott- puts his money where his mouth is‘).
Last Thursday, Mott committed almost the same amount of cash again, doubling his holding to the equivalent of 30,000 ordinary shares in Shire, by buying 5,000 ADS at $48 (equivalent to buying 15,000 ords at 910p).
I also find other recent purchases:
August 6th Graham Hetherington, CFO, buys 4000 shares at 896p taking him to 56,000 shares.
August 5th Matthew Emmens. Non exec Chairman, exercises options on almost 40,000 shares at an average price of around 430p. He would normally need to sell roughly 40% of these shares to pay for the tax liable, but is not doing so, so I consider this transaction to be a net investment by Emmens.
August 1st Michael Rosenblatt, Non exec, bought 1155 shares at 800p
June 13th Aungus Russell, CEO, bought 6000 shares at 804p
If I then look back further to see if directors have historically bought and sold at the ‘right’ times, and I find the following:
I see directors were buyers at 868p to 888p level in September 2006.
Then from November 2006 to September 2007 they were net sellers (exercised options and sold almost all the shares) in range of 1056p to 1270p (shares peaked at 1310p in August 2007)
And now they are buyers again, as from February this year, in range of 804p to 998p (shares troughed at 745p on July 16th).
With the observation of ongoing buying activity in decent $$ amounts, as well as having several directors buying over a short period, I believe the ‘signal’ given by directors dealing activity in Shire Ltd should move from WEAK to STRONG.
followthedirectors... a study of directors share dealings 