Halfords' (HFD) share price has taken a bit of a beating these past few years, but it started to recover in July 2012 and since then it has grown 79 per cent. Commercial director Paul McClenaghan took this as an opportunity to free up some cash for personal expenditure through the sale of nearly one third of his stake in the company on 6 February. He disposed of 46,221 shares at 341.9p each, raising £158,071, taking his remaining holding down to 100,000.
The transaction followed an update in January for Halfords indicating improved trading, with like-for-like sales growth of 1 per cent in the third quarter. While there remains a great deal for management to do, many brokers believe profits have bottomed and that the forecast risk is now on the upside, a view we took when we tipped the company back in November. The share price has eased back somewhat since then, but we stick to our view that with net debt forecast to come down, a tasty dividend yield of 6.46 per cent and an undemanding valuation, the shares are well worth buying.
Julia Bradshaw
A new home for finance director at Home Retail
Home Retail Group (HOME) is trying to re-invent Argos as a “digital retail leader” while attempting to stem sales declines at Homebase. A trading statement in January made for positive reading, with same-store sales at Argos up 2.7 per cent, prompting management to raise pre-tax profit forecasts and us to move the company to a hold. But it wasn’t all good news. Like-for-like sales at Homebase were down 3.9 per cent and gross profit margins for both companies fell by half a percentage point. The share price has fallen slightly since then too, from 140p to 128p, and both Argos and Homebase face problems that are more structural than cyclical. Perhaps this was something finance director Richard Ashton considered when he decided to cash in one third of his shares to buy a house on 7 February, selling 249,975 shares at 127.5p each, totalling £318,768.
Julia Bradshaw
Gilbert of Aberdeen is diversifying
Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) delivered a strong fourth-quarter performance, helped by solid gains in equity markets, but there was also a £3.1bn net inflow of funds. What’s more, inflows have continued to be drawn into higher-margin pooled funds, while outflows have come principally from lower-margin segregated portfolios. And the share price has done well, rising 75 per cent in the last year, so chief executive Martin Gilbert did very well selling 1m shares at 403.5p. And the reason given for the sale was portfolio diversification, which seems reasonable given that as well as still holding 1.2m shares, Mr Gilbert also has an unconditional entitlement to 4.25m ordinary shares as part of the company’s deferred bonus arrangements in the five years including 2007 to 2011, which have reached their earliest vesting dates. Furthermore, there is an additional conditional entitlement to another 2.36m shares in respect of awards made under the group's deferred bonus arrangements from 2009 to 2012 that will vest up to 2016. So even without the shares still locked in, Mr Gilbert’s aggregate unconditional interest in the company is still 5.45m shares, around 0.4 per cent of the issued share capital.
Jonas Crosland
And finally...
Spare a thought for Alan Bray when he discovered that James Brearley (the registered holder of his shares) sold his holding in SkyePharma (SKP) in error. His 6,163 shares were sold inadvertently at 67.68p a share and had to be repurchased at 71p.
Robert Ansted
Buys
Company | Director | Date | No. of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Total shares held | Value (%) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
3i | Jonathan Asquith | 07 Feb 13 | 2,500 | 278 | 6,950 | - | - |
3i | Alistair Cox | 07 Feb 13 | 2,500 | 278 | 6,950 | - | - |
3i | Richard Meddings | 07 Feb 13 | 2,500 | 278 | 6,950 | - | - |
3i | Willem Mesdag | 07 Feb 13 | 2,500 | 278 | 6,950 | - | - |
3i | Martine Verluyten | 07 Feb 13 | 2,500 | 278 | 6,950 | - | - |
3i | Sir Adrian Montague (ch) | 08 Feb 13 | 10,752 | 279 | 29,998 | - | - |
AquaSource | Oliver Spurling | 11 Feb 13 | 274,080 | 1.75 | 4,796 | - | 26.1 |
Avanti Communications | Paul Johnson | 12 Feb 13 | 10,000 | 277 | 27,700 | 10,000 | 0.01 |
BG | Andrew Gould (ch)_ | 11 Feb 13 | 35,000 | 1120 | 392,000 | - | - |
Chrysalis VCT | Peter Harkness | 11 Feb 13 | 20,000 | 58.5 | 11,700 | 164,462 | 0.55 |
Chrysalis VCT | Julie Baddeley | 11 Feb 13 | 20,000 | 58.5 | 11,700 | 111,517 | 0.37 |
Chrysalis VCT | Martin Knight | 11 Feb 13 | 20,000 | 58.5 | 11,700 | 130,652 | 0.44 |
e2v | Neil Johnson | 11 Feb 13 | 16,666 | 115 | 19,166 | 16,666 | 0.008 |
e2v | Anthony Reading | 11 Feb 13 | 14,339 | 113.9 | 16,332 | 70,000 | 0.032 |
Energy XXI | John Schiller (ch,ceo) | 07 Feb 13 | 5,000 | US$32.25 | US$161,250 | 1,232,050 | 1.553 |
Energy XXI | John Schiller (ch,ceo) | 07 Feb 13 | 950 | US$32.16 | US$30,552 | 1,233,000 | 1.554 |
Hornby | Nick Stone | 07 Feb 13 | 10,000 | 83.25 | 8,325 | 10,000 | 0.026 |
Imperial Tobacco | Iain Napier (ch) | 08 Feb 13 | 432 | 2314.28 | 9,998 | 18,889 | - |
JPMorgan Indian Inv Trust | Nimi Patel | 06 Feb 13 | 39,000 | 394.3 | 153,777 | 46,737 | 0.04 |
JPMorgan Russian Securities | Robert Jeens | 11 Feb 13 | 5,000 | 571.4 | 28,570 | 10,000 | 0.02 |
Low & Bonar | Martin Flower | 06 Feb 13 | 50,000 | 63.36 | 31,680 | 438,142 | 0.15 |
LPA | Per Staehr | 11 Feb 13 | 10,000 | 68 | 6,800 | 165,500 | 1.4 |
North Atlantic Smaller Cos Inv Tst | Christopher Mills | 07 Feb 13 | 5,000 | 1318 | 65,900 | 3,419,232 | 23.81 |
Photo-Me International | Francoise Coutaz-Replan | 11 Feb 13 | 81,800 | 36.67 | 29,996 | 161,800 | - |
Port Erin Biopharma | Jim Mellon | 06 Feb 13 | 744,000 | 8.23 | 61,231 | 5,016,000 | 15.2 |
President Energy | Peter Levine (ch) | 12 Feb 13 | 100,000 | 23 | 23,000 | 68,448,525 | 25.47 |
Rolls-Royce | Iain Conn | 07 Feb 13 | 254 | 974 | 2,474 | 24,934 | - |
Sigma Capital | Marilyn Cole | 07 Feb 13 | 100,000 | 6 | 6,000 | 689,660 | 1.5 |
Sigma Capital | Mark Hogarth | 07 Feb 13 | 100,000 | 6 | 6,000 | 401,259 | 0.9 |
Sigma Capital | Graeme Hogg | 07 Feb 13 | 326,000 | 6 | 19,560 | 397,429 | 0.9 |
Sigma Capital | David Sigsworth | 07 Feb 13 | 165,000 | 6 | 9,900 | 411,971 | 0.9 |
Smith, DS | Gareth Davis | 07 Feb 13 | 21,900 | 229.8 | 50,326 | 106,900 | 0.012 |
Sells
Company | Director | Date | No. of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Total shares held | Value (%) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Aberdeen Asset Management | Martin Gilbert | 08 Feb 13 | 1,000,000 | 403.50 | 4,035,000 | 1,200,486 | 0.1 |
Anite | Michael Kingswood | 07 Feb 13 | 12,500 | 156.10 | 19,513 | 53,779 | 0.018 |
Anite | Michael Kingswood | 07 Feb 13 | 14,484 | 157.02 | 22,743 | 68,263 | 0.023 |
Halfords | Paul McClenaghan | 06 Feb 13 | 46,221 | 341.99 | 158,071 | 100,000 | - |
Home Retail | Richard Ashton | 07 Feb 13 | 249,975 | 127.52 | 318,768 | - | - |
Polymetal International | Valery Tsyplakov | 05 Feb 13 | 15,000 | 1,085 | 162,750 | 185,000 | 0.048 |
Table compiled by Robert Ansted
Key to abbreviations: ch = chairman; ce = chief executive; cfo = chief financial officer; fd = finance director; coo = chief operating officer; cs =company secretary; md = managing director