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Fiberweb (FWEB, 43.5p) are up 26% today (August 7) on the back of interim results demonstrating substantial benefits from cost cutting (Reuters results comment here).
In spite of this move, the CEO David Dayan and CFO David Abrams today bought 115,000 shares each at 43.11p.
This takes Dayan to 1,085,000 shares, and Abrams to 224,000 shares. So a significant % increase for CFO Abrams.
When I look back at historic buying, I find
- CEO Abrams has bought almost 1m shares since October 2007 at between 43p and 56p
- ALL six directors of the company have been buying shares. This is very unusual to have all the board investing like this.
And in my post of May 20th (‘Directors pile in after takeover talks collapse’ link here) I note that Fiberweb were also the subject of takeover talks which collapsed on April 23rd which resulted in the shareprice halving from near 60p to 30p.
To me this appears to be a very strong story: directors buying, cost cutting, potential takeover target.
The recent director buying activity means that Fiberweb stays on a STRONG signal.
Disclosure: I have a position in Fiberweb.
Addendum August 8th announcement by Fiberweb:
‘Richard Stillwell, Non-Executive Director of Fiberweb plc, purchased [on August 7th] 40,000 ordinary shares at a price of 43.5 pence per share. As a result of this transaction Mr Stillwell now beneficially owns 127,500 shares in Fiberweb.’
Robert Dickinson, a board member and former President and CEO of Carnival Cruise Lines at Carnival (CCL, 1793p) is using the recent bounce in the share price from a low of 1450p to sell down his holding in the Carnival and P&O cruise line business.
On June 24th he sold 18,000 shares at 1761p, realising £317,000.
On August 1st he sold 40,000 shares at 1864p, realising £715,000.
This leaves him with 160,000 shares in CCL.
Is Dickinson planning a cruise for his retirement, or does he think that the risks are on the downside for CCL ?
August 11th: Carnival announce that on August 8th Howard Frank, Vice Chairman and Chief operating Officer sold 66,000 shares at an average price of $ 39.6159 taking his holding in Carnival to 294,416 shares.
So now Frank and Dickinson between them have taken about $4.5m or £2 1/4m out of Carnival shares in the last 8 weeks. Not a positive indicator for the shares.
The ‘strength of signal’ derived from directors dealings moves from medium to STRONG.
I tend to concur with the Telegraph article of 29th June ‘Carnival shares no safe harbour’. Link to article here.
On March 10th I warned, ahead of results, that the risk was on the downside for Savills (SVS, 221p). (See my comment here).
Since that date, Savills are down 37% in absolute terms, and down 27% relative to the FTSE 250.
Over the last few weeks however we’ve seen a bit of life come back to the Agencies (and property management and surveyors etc), in the form of director buying at Colliers Re (COL, 40.5p).
CEO David Izett has trebled the size of his holding by buying 100,000 shares at between 40p and 46p between 26/6 and 1/8.
Non exec Chairman Sir John Ritblat has increased his position in Colliers CRE by almost 50%, buying 300,000 shares at 46p to take him to a holding of 935,000.
These two directors have invested almost £180k between them. Not a huge amount, but the first indicator of value in a dead sector.
Addendum
August 6th :
Further buying has been reported by Colliers CRE as follows
1/8 Non exec Chairman Sir John Ritblat has bought a further 250,000 shares at 40p, taking his holding to 1,195,000 shares.
4/8 Non exec Colin Wagman has bought 50,000 shares at 41p, a maiden purchase for him.
These purchases reinforce the positive case for the agents, and I expect Savills and Colliers to perform well from here.
In my post of March 6th: ‘3i CEO Philip Yea buys back £1/2m worth of shares’ I commended Philip Yea for his expertise in trading in his own company stock, 3i.
Note now that on July 14th Yea sold 60,831 shares at 823.5p, taking £500k off the table, leaving him with a residual 275,000 shares.
From March 6th to date 3i (III, 930p) are up 22% relative to the FTSE 100.
Time to take profits then. Thankyou Philip.
Way back in December I pointed to ‘wise man’ Carey buying into Wolfson (WLF, 137p) shares (see note of December 21st ‘Wise of Wolfson buys back 58% cheaper‘ here).
But the shares continued to drift as Carey bought at lower and lower prices. Then the news that Wolfsons contract with Apple had not been renewed (see Times comment here) caused a 30% drop in the share price. Wolfson hit a low of 99p, and my jaw hit the floor too!.
But over the last two months Carey has been joined in his enthusiasm for Wolfson shares by three other non execs:
19th March Rob Eckelmann buys 7500 shares at 128p. He now owns 30,000 shares.
25th April Barry Rose buys 15,000 shares at 136p. He now owns 38,000 shares, and on
1st and 8th of May Michael Ruetggers, the non exec Chairman of Wolfson, buys 200,000 shares at 140p. He now owns 300,000 shares.
I am happier seeing four directors of Wolfson buying shares than one director. I take their mutual enthusiasm for Wolfson as a very positive (long term) sign.
followthedirectors... a study of directors share dealings 