Last week, JD Sports Fashion (JD.) executive chairman Peter Cowgill sold £13.3m of the retail group’s shares. News of the share sale, which took place on 5 June, sent JD shares down by as much as 8 per cent. Mr Cowgill retains a stake of 0.67 per cent in JD Sports.
JD Sports declined to comment on the chairman’s share disposal. It’s worth noting, however, that Mr Cowgill volunteered to take a 75 per cent salary cut during the current disruptive period. JD Sports board members have also agreed to the deferral of incentive payments, although it’s expected that these will be paid at some point in the future. The group has delayed the release of its full-year results from 15 April to 7 July, in order to ensure that its 2021 financial results adequately reflect the impact of Covid-19.
The announcement was followed this week by analysts at RBC Capital downgrading JD Sports from a ‘sector perform’ rating to ‘underperform’. While acknowledging JD’s strong track record and management team, RBC fears that changes to shopping habits and an online shift may hinder its longer term margin recovery.
RBC analysts expect lower sales densities in high traffic spots, which typically depend more on public transport. Weaker earning power among younger consumers could also play its part, they wrote.
Buys | ||||||
Company | Director/PDMR | Date | No. of shares | Price (p) | Aggregate value (£) | Comments |
GetBusy | Miles Jakeman | 1 Jun 20 | 150,000 | 64 | 96,000 | |
International Personal Finance | Stuart Sinclair (ch) | 4 Jun 20 | 86,944 | 57 | 49,558 | |
Braveheart Investment Group | Trevor Brown | 5 Jun 20 | 972,385 | 17 | 165,306 | |
Lok'nStore | Charles Peal | 5 Jun 20 | 7,200 | 498 | 35,856 | |
Lok'nStore | Antonia Peal | 5 Jun 20 | 7,200 | 492 | 35,424 | |
Sells | ||||||
Company | Director/PDMR | Date | No. of shares | Price (p) | Aggregate value (£) | Comments |
Avast | Ulf Claesson | 4 Jun 20 | 250,000 | 486.89 | 1,217,225 | |
XP Power | Andy Sng | 4 Jun 20 | 7,900 | 3,557 | 281,003 | Exercise and sale of options |
SSP | Gail Davies | 4 Jun 20 | 300,000 | 315.50 | 946,493 | PCA of CFO Jonathan Davies, sold to facilitate property purchase |
Softcat | Colin Brown | 4-5 Jun 20 | 120,000 | 1,111 | 1,333,024 | Aggregate price |
Clinigen | John Hartup | 5 Jun 20 | 5,000 | 8.865 | 44,325 | |
JD Sports | Peter Cowgill | 5 Jun 20 | 1,985,000 | 671.77 | 13,334,635 | Residual interst of 0.67% |
Young & Co | Patrick Dardis (ceo) | 8 Jun 20 | 10,500 | 1,110 | 116,550 | |
Young & Co | Torquil Sligo-Young | 8 Jun 20 | 10,000 | 725 | 72,500 | |
Aston Martin | Amr Ali Abdallah Abouelseoud | 8 Jun 20 | 300,000 | 78.93 | 236,780 | Sold by PCA |
Kainos Group | Paul Gannon | 8 Jun 20 | 115,000 | 8.65 | 9,950 | |
Kainos Group | Paul Gannon | 8 Jun 20 | 1,500 | 8.3 | 125 |