You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘WEAK signal’ category.
Graeme Gordon, son of the founder of Liberty Intl (LII, 958p) Sir Donald Gordon, and Non Executive Director, has invested £250k in Liberty International shares at 992p.
I looked back at historic trading, and Gordon nailed this one back in May 2006, when he bought 43,000 shares at 1001p. By the end of the year he was up 40% on that trade. His co directors started selling ap at the £14 level in late 2006 early 2007, and have sold down to 1120p in late 2007.
So yes, Gordons trade looks interesting from a timing point of view.
BUT – why bother? He’s already got £15m in Liberty shares in his own name, and must have claims on a significant portion of the ‘Gordon Family Interests’ £730m worth of Liberty Intl shares.
So even though this looks interesting, I’m going to discount the value of this signal due the the tiny increase in share ownership by Gordon. Now if he invested £5m, that would be a different matter…..
Dairy Crest (DCG, 551p) non execs have each bought 5,000 shares at 542p.
Why is this interesting?
1. Solid cash flow milk, cheese and yoghurt business – defensive
2. Able to pass on price rises – offer protection against inflation
3. Year end 31 March – soon- good news in the pipeline?
4. Well liked- read Questor (scroll down to the bottom of the page)
5. 27% off their high
6. Rapidly growing home delivery program- milk and more
Non execs David Richardson, Carole Piwnica, and Non exec Chairman Simon Oliver, each invested £27k in Dairy Crest.
This is a relatively safe, defensive investment, with good news ahead.
‘EasyJet slides as planes fly with empty seats’
Easyjet shares have recently taken a nosedive, prompting four directors to increase their holdings by a significant amount (Michels- Non exec, Browett- Non exec, Chandler- Chairman, and Harrison- CEO).
It is the Chairman, Sir Colin Chandler, who has the best track record. He has bought stock three times in the last five years. Within 10-12 months of his purchase, on each occasion, the share price has appreciated by between 70% to 110%.
February 2003- paid 205p. easyjet shares traded at 370p 10 months later.
August 2004- paid 140p. easyjet shares traded at 300p 12 months later.
February 2006- paid 378p. easyjet shares traded at 650p 10 months later.
January 2008- paid 424p.
OK, so Chandler never banked his profits. But from the evidence above he clearly recognises a buying opportunity. An example I’m happy to follow.
Terry Burman, CEO, has started to buy back some of his Signet (SIG) shares. on Jan 16th he invested £60k at 61p per share to buy 98,000 shares. This is a mere drop in the ocean, and needs to be substantially reinforced through further investing before it becomes a buy signal.
Why? Well, Tel boy between April 06 and April 07 sold about 3.2m shares between 95p and 124p (note the all time high was 127p in april 07).
A better indicator might be Chairman Malcolm Williamsons purchase on January 17th of 100k shares at 63p. This more than doubles his shareholding to 173,000 shares. Williamson was appointed to the board in 2005, and became chairman the following year. I’m afraid though that Williamsons expertise lies in the financial arena, with present and previous roles at Visa, Standard Chartered, National Australia Bank, and JP Morgan Cazenove. And I’m not sure I’d listen to him with regards to likely future activity of the common or garden consumer. So look for Burman to spend some more $$ before you buy Signet.
CFO of Next (NXT, 1740p) David Keens increased his holding in the group by 10,000 shares to 145,000 shares this week, at 1711p, investing around £171k.
Is this significant? Maybe. If you assume that Shirley Keens and David Keens speak with each other, and their finances are related, then this purchase partly reverses a sale by Shirley Keens of 45,000 shares at 2245p on April 17th this year, raising £1m. However the press release at the time claimed that Shirley Keens ‘manages her assets independently’ of Mr Keens.
Simon Wolfson, CEO, in March raised over £3.5m by selling 160,000 shares at prices between 2303p and 2309p.
Another recent buyer is Christos Angelides (exec director), who was credited with being a ‘weather forecaster’ in the last week of July, investing £180k ahead of a desperately needed sunny weekend. Next shares rallied by £3 to £22 in the three months after his purchase. Last week Steve Barber (non exec) also stepped up, but invested only £8,000.
Why am I not totally convinced? Because Keens has only increased his holding by about 8%, and I’d like to see a little more commitment from both him and other directors in the sector, where we’ve seen purchases by directors of WHSmith, Lookers and Pendragon in the last week.
followthedirectors... a study of directors share dealings 