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McClenaghan sells shares in Halfords

The number of transactions made by directors are beginning to pick up ahead of the start of the busy reporting season. Although the buys outnumber the sells the largest deals by value this week are all within the sells. We highlight three of these disposals.
February 14, 2013, Jonas Crosland and Robert Ansted

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

CompanyDirectorDateNo. of sharesPrice (p)Value (£)Total shares heldValue (%)
3iJonathan Asquith07 Feb 132,5002786,950--
3iAlistair Cox07 Feb 132,5002786,950--
3iRichard Meddings07 Feb 132,5002786,950--
3iWillem Mesdag07 Feb 132,5002786,950--
3iMartine Verluyten07 Feb 132,5002786,950--
3iSir Adrian Montague (ch)08 Feb 1310,75227929,998--
AquaSourceOliver Spurling11 Feb 13274,0801.754,796-26.1
Avanti CommunicationsPaul Johnson12 Feb 1310,00027727,70010,0000.01
BGAndrew Gould (ch)_11 Feb 1335,0001120392,000--
Chrysalis VCTPeter Harkness11 Feb 1320,00058.511,700164,4620.55
Chrysalis VCTJulie Baddeley11 Feb 1320,00058.511,700111,5170.37
Chrysalis VCTMartin Knight11 Feb 1320,00058.511,700130,6520.44
e2vNeil Johnson11 Feb 1316,66611519,16616,6660.008
e2vAnthony Reading11 Feb 1314,339113.916,33270,0000.032
Energy XXIJohn Schiller (ch,ceo)07 Feb 135,000US$32.25US$161,2501,232,0501.553
Energy XXIJohn Schiller (ch,ceo)07 Feb 13950US$32.16US$30,5521,233,0001.554
HornbyNick Stone07 Feb 1310,00083.258,32510,0000.026
Imperial TobaccoIain Napier (ch)08 Feb 134322314.289,99818,889-
JPMorgan Indian Inv TrustNimi Patel06 Feb 1339,000394.3153,77746,7370.04
JPMorgan Russian SecuritiesRobert Jeens11 Feb 135,000571.428,57010,0000.02
Low & BonarMartin Flower06 Feb 1350,00063.3631,680438,1420.15
LPAPer Staehr11 Feb 1310,000686,800165,5001.4
North Atlantic Smaller Cos Inv TstChristopher Mills07 Feb 135,000131865,9003,419,23223.81
Photo-Me InternationalFrancoise Coutaz-Replan11 Feb 1381,80036.6729,996161,800-
Port Erin BiopharmaJim Mellon06 Feb 13744,0008.2361,2315,016,00015.2
President EnergyPeter Levine (ch)12 Feb 13100,0002323,00068,448,52525.47
Rolls-RoyceIain Conn07 Feb 132549742,47424,934-
Sigma CapitalMarilyn Cole07 Feb 13100,00066,000689,6601.5
Sigma CapitalMark Hogarth07 Feb 13100,00066,000401,2590.9
Sigma CapitalGraeme Hogg07 Feb 13326,000619,560397,4290.9
Sigma CapitalDavid Sigsworth07 Feb 13165,00069,900411,9710.9
Smith, DSGareth Davis07 Feb 1321,900229.850,326106,9000.012

 

Sells

CompanyDirectorDateNo. of sharesPrice (p)Value (£)Total shares heldValue (%)
Aberdeen Asset ManagementMartin Gilbert08 Feb 131,000,000403.504,035,0001,200,4860.1
AniteMichael Kingswood07 Feb 1312,500156.1019,51353,7790.018
AniteMichael Kingswood07 Feb 1314,484157.0222,74368,2630.023
HalfordsPaul McClenaghan06 Feb 1346,221341.99158,071100,000-
Home RetailRichard Ashton07 Feb 13249,975127.52318,768--
Polymetal InternationalValery Tsyplakov05 Feb 1315,0001,085162,750185,0000.048

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