Jonny Mason, who joined Halfords (HFD) from Scandinavian chicken company Scandi Standard midway through last year, has forked out just over £185,000 to bump-up his holding in the retailer. The chief financial officer completed the transactions within a few days of a Q3 trading update, which showed that while gross margins remain under pressure, overall sales proved more resilient than recent estimates had suggested.
Like-for-like sales were broadly flat, but some segments of the business, such as bulbs/blades fitting and cycle repairs, provided cause for optimism. Gross margins are still expected to contract by a midpoint rate of 50 basis points, though this is seen as a reasonable decline given the potential impact of mild weather conditions on the high-margin car maintenance business.
Trading conditions are tough and Halfords has come up short of sales targets. As a consequence management has initiated a range of cost-containment measures, including a cut in bonuses for employees amounting to £2m. This played well with City analysts, though the retailer could be faced by an overarching issue if, as some pundits suggest, that recent sluggish bike sales pre-figure a market trend.
Buys | |||||||
Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
7digital | Sir Don Cruickshank (ch) | 21 Jan 16 | 653,000 | 6.125 | 39,996 | 943,000 | 0.870 |
Aberdeen New Dawn Investment Trust | Susie Rippingall | 25 Jan 16 | 12,500 | 139.43 | 17,429 | 25,000 | 0.020 |
BlackRock Smaller Companies Trust | Robert Robertson | 26 Jan 16 | 6,000 | 876 | 52,560 | 86,062 | 0.180 |
Booker | Gary Hughes | 25 Jan 16 | 20,000 | 154.58 | 30,916 | 20,000 | 0.001 |
Booker ♥ | Karen Jones | 26 Jan 16 | 6,740 | 154.47 | 10,411 | 160,901 | 0.009 |
Caledonia Mining Corp | John Kelly | 22 Jan 16 | 16,965 | 41.27 | 7,002 | 16,965 | 0.033 |
Caledonia Mining Corp | John Kelly | 22 Jan 16 | 27,000 | 67.43 | 18,205 | 43,965 | 0.084 |
Carpetright | Wilf Walsh (ce) | 27 Jan 16 | 25,000 | 400 | 100,000 | 25,000 | 0.037 |
Carpetright ♥ | Neil Page (fd) | 27 Jan 16 | 6,250 | 400 | 25,000 | 22,282 | 0.033 |
Centrica | Ian Meakins | 25 Jan 16 | 976 | 206.7 | 2,017 | 22,510 | <0.001 |
Centrica | Margherita Della Valle | 25 Jan 16 | 963 | 206.7 | 1,991 | 25,617 | 0.001 |
Centrica | Steve Pusey | 25 Jan 16 | 898 | 206.7 | 1,856 | 22,468 | <0.001 |
City Merchants High Yield Trust | Winifred Robbins | 25 Jan 16 | 57,512 | 173.87 | 99,996 | 247,330 | 0.286 |
City Merchants High Yield Trust | Winifred Robbins | 26 Jan 16 | 28,887 | 173.08 | 49,998 | 276,217 | 0.320 |
City Merchants High Yield Trust | Winifred Robbins | 27 Jan 16 | 85,958 | 174.5 | 149,997 | 362,175 | 0.419 |
City Natural Resources High Yield Trust | Adrian Collins | 21 Jan 16 | 25,000 | 67.25 | 16,813 | 100,000 | 0.150 |
City Natural Resources High Yield Trust | Richard Prickett | 21 Jan 16 | 14,000 | 67.5 | 9,450 | 39,000 | 0.058 |
Collagen Solutions | David Evans (ch) | 21 Jan 16 | 1,000,000 | 7.5 | 75,000 | 13,888,730 | 8.103 |
Condor Gold | Sir Jim Mellon | 25 Jan 16 | 160,000 | 27 | 43,200 | 198,820 | 0.434 |
De La Rue ♥ | Philip Rogerson (ch) | 22 Jan 16 | 8,000 | 422.2 | 33,776 | 13,000 | 0.013 |
Dixons Carphone | Tony DeNunzio | 26 Jan 16 | 50,000 | 459.95 | 229,975 | 50,000 | 0.004 |
Fidelity China Special Situations | The Hon Peter Pleydell-Bouverie | 21 Jan 16 | 6,759 | 117.40 | 7,935 | 78,683 | 0.014 |
Finsbury Growth & Income Trust | S Hayes | 21 Jan 16 | 10,000 | 544 | 54,400 | 20,000 | 0.016 |
First Derivatives | Seamus Keating (ch) | 22 Jan 16 | 10,000 | 1,550 | 155,000 | 25,314 | 0.105 |
Fusionex International | John Croft (ch) | 25 Jan 16 | 13,800 | 148 | 20,424 | 24,800 | 0.052 |
Fusionex International | Robin Taylor | 27 Jan 16 | 3,836 | 130 | 4,987 | 16,663 | 0.035 |
Halfords | Jonny Mason (cfo) | 25 Jan 16 | 25,000 | 367.2 | 91,800 | 50,000 | 0.026 |
Halfords | Jonny Mason (cfo) | 27 Jan 16 | 25,000 | 374.99 | 93,748 | 75,000 | 0.038 |
Ideagen | David Hornsby (ce) | 26 Jan 16 | 42,000 | 47.5 | 19,950 | 9,446,033 | 5.281 |
International Biotechnology Trust | Caroline Gulliver | 25 Jan 16 | 2,500 | 468 | 11,700 | 5,000 | 0.013 |
JPMorgan Indian Investment Trust ♥ | JRA Judd | 22 Jan 16 | 1,000 | 476 | 4,760 | 3,000 | 0.003 |
Lowland Investment Co | Karl Sternberg | 22 Jan 16 | 500 | 1,210 | 6,050 | 6,260 | 0.023 |
Lowland Investment Co | Robert Robertson | 26 Jan 16 | 5,000 | 1,175 | 58,750 | 39,225 | 0.145 |
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets | Rooney Anand | 22 Jan 16 | 12,500 | 160.36 | 20,045 | 12,500 | 0.001 |
Nostrum Oil & Gas | Eike v D Linden | 22 Jan 16 | 2,000 | 304 | 6,080 | 15,160 | 0.008 |
Polar Capital Technology Trust | M Charlotta Ginman-Jones | 21 Jan 16 | 2,744 | 552 | 15,147 | 2,744 | 0.002 |
Purplebricks | Michael Bruce (ce) | 26 Jan 16 | 320,000 | 78 | 249,600 | 41,237,225 | 17.164 |
Purplebricks | Paul Pindar (ch) | 26 Jan 16 | 300,000 | 78.16 | 234,480 | 11,020,281 | 4.587 |
Record ♥ | Dr. Cees Schrauwers | 22 Jan 16 | 100,000 | 25.25 | 25,250 | 330,000 | 0.149 |
Rotala | Simon Dunn (ce) | 27 Jan 16 | 7,925 | 75.55 | 5,987 | 1,501,095 | 3.918 |
Sky | Dave Lewis | 27 Jan 16 | 289 | 1,047 | 3,026 | 8,773 | 0.001 |
Sky | Nick Ferguson (ch) | 27 Jan 16 | 548 | 1,047 | 5,738 | 42,140 | 0.002 |
Styles & Wood | Tony Lenehan (ce) | 26 Jan 16 | 3,500 | 250 | 8,750 | 24,688 | 0.349 |
Styles & Wood | Philip Lanigan (fd) | 26 Jan 16 | 2,000 | 250 | 5,000 | 12,413 | 0.175 |
SVG Capital Ω | Lynn Fordham (ce) | 28 Jan 16 | 47,218 | 482.66 | 227,901 | 531,024 | 0.330 |
Thalassa Holdings | Francis Smulders | 22 Jan 16 | 20,000 | 34 | 6,800 | 20,000 | 0.085 |
Universe | Robert Smeeton (fd) | 22 Jan 16 | 240,000 | 7.5 | 18,000 | 626,240 | 0.271 |
Sells | |||||||
Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
ASOS | Nicholas Robertson | 21 Jan 16 | 198,586 | 2,915.50 | 5,789,783 | 6,801,414 | 8.152 |
Experian † | Brian Cassin (ce) | 25 Jan 16 | 24,044 | 1,142.72 | 274,756 | 117,098 | 0.012 |
Stobart | Andrew Tinkler (ce) | 27 Jan 16 | 824,939 | 104 | 857,937 | 28,476,811 | 8.270 |
SVG Capital Ω | Lynn Fordham (ce) | 25 Jan 16 | 36,759 | 482.66 | 177,420 | 483,806 | 0.302 |
Universe | Baljit Tank | 22 Jan 16 | 3,500,000 | 7.5 | 262,500 | 11,804,257 | 5.104 |
*Placing/tender/open offer Spouse/connected party ΩTender offer †Shares sold to cover tax and social security under Recruitment & Retention Plan |