Shares in insurance business Admiral (ADM) hit a 52-week high of 2,110p after its interim results were released earlier this month. The company had compensated for a softening in motor insurance premiums by increasing its share of the UK market, insuring 11 per cent more vehicles, to hit a total of 4.26m. But snowy weather caused a rise in claims in its UK household insurance business, which slid into an underwriting loss of £2.9m despite a 40 per cent increase in total premiums written. Strip out the impact of bad weather and the division would have made a £5.6m profit.
IC TIP:
Hold
at
2,034p
Such a share price high can present an opportunity to take some profits. Chief executive David Stevens sold 225,000 shares at 2,019p through the charity The Waterloo Foundation, of which he is a trustee. Mr Stevens and his wife set up the charity in 2007, and the £4.54m raised from the sale will go towards its operations. The Admiral boss still owns around 8.6m shares, or 3 per cent of share capital.
| Buys | |||||||
| Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
| Admiral | Annette Court (ch) | 15 Aug 2018 | 1,195 | 2,056.00 | 24,569 | 6,410 | 0.002 |
| Baillie Gifford Japan Trust | Joanna Pitman | 15 Aug 2018 | 5,262 | 842.00 | 44,306 | 5,262 | 0.006 |
| Caledonia Mining | Mark Learmonth (cfo) | 10 Aug 2018 | 2,300 | 625.00 | 14,375 | 70,106 | 0.661 |
| Caledonia Mining | Johan Holtzhausen | 10 Aug 2018 | 1,000 | 625.00 | 6,250 | 19,000 | 0.179 |
| Caledonia Mining | Steven Curtis (ceo) | 10 Aug 2018 | 5,000 | 625.00 | 31,250 | 94,300 | 0.889 |
| Caledonia Mining | Leigh Wilson (ch) | 10 Aug 2018 | 145 | 8.03 | 1,164 | 52,000 | 0.490 |
| Caledonia Mining | Leigh Wilson (ch) | 10 Aug 2018 | 3,855 | 8.45 | 32,575 | 51,855 | 0.489 |
| Capital & Regional | Lawrence Hutchings (ceo) | 14 Aug 2018 | 41,080 | 48.20 | 19,801 | 79,790 | 0.011 |
| Carclo | Sarah Matthews-DeMers | 10 Aug 2018 | 20,450 | 96.00 | 19,632 | 20,450 | 0.028 |
| Devro | Jackie Callaway | 09 Aug 2018 | 10,000 | 197.70 | 19,770 | 10,000 | 0.006 |
| Devro | Rutger Helbing (ceo) | 09 Aug 2018 | 15,000 | 197.70 | 29,655 | 42,500 | 0.025 |
| Falanx | Michael Read (ch) | 14 Aug 2018 | 120,000 | 4.15 | 4,980 | 9,478,940 | 3.650 |
| Falanx | Ian Selby (cfo) | 14 Aug 2018 | 60,000 | 4.34 | 2,601 | 726,667 | 0.280 |
| Falanx | Michael Read (ch) | 14 Aug 2018 | 115,000 | 4.35 | 5,003 | 9,358,940 | 3.604 |
| Ferrexpo | Simon Lockett | 09 Aug 2018 | 50,000 | 170.55 | 85,275 | 50,000 | 0.008 |
| Hill & Smith | Jock Lennox (ch) | 13 Aug 2018 | 3,500 | 1,022.00 | 35,770 | 11,000 | 0.014 |
| Hill & Smith | Alan Giddins | 09 Aug 2018 | 1,745 | 1,127.00 | 19,666 | 6,245 | 0.008 |
| hVIVO | Trevor Phillips (ch) | 09 Aug 2018 | 23,500 | 65.00 | 15,275 | 32,535 | 0.041 |
| Ibstock | Louis Eperjesi | 09 Aug 2018 | 20,000 | 246.51 | 49,302 | 20,000 | 0.005 |
| Ibstock | Tracey Graham | 09 Aug 2018 | 10,000 | 246.74 | 24,674 | 10,000 | 0.002 |
| IMI | Thomas Andersen | 15 Aug 2018 | 2,625 | 1,134.00 | 29,768 | 2,625 | 0.001 |
| Infrastrata | John Wood (coo) | 09 Aug 2018 | 689,352 | 0.59 | 4,060 | 38,959,401 | 3.773 |
| Infrastrata | John Wood (coo) | 09 Aug 2018 | 2,031,779 | 0.59 | 11,987 | 38,270,049 | 3.706 |
| Intercede♥ | Jacques Tredoux | 09 Aug 2018 | 787,500 | 30.00 | 236,250 | 12,601,388 | 24.962 |
| Intercede♥ | Jacques Tredoux | 09 Aug 2018 | 714,368 | 30.00 | 214,310 | 13,315,756 | 26.377 |
| Low & Bonar | Kevin Matthews | 14 Aug 2018 | 10,148 | 49.27 | 5,000 | 34,537 | 0.010 |
| Metal Tiger* | Charles Hall (ch) | 13 Aug 2018 | 2,000,000 | 2.80 | 56,000 | 37,394,699 | 2.976 |
| Metal Tiger* | David McNeilly (ceo) | 13 Aug 2018 | 357,142 | 2.80 | 10,000 | 2,690,474 | 0.214 |
| Midwich♥ | Stephen Fenby (md) | 10 Aug 2018 | 8,000 | 605.00 | 48,400 | 21,288,000 | 26.795 |
| Midwich♥ | Stephen Fenby (md) | 10 Aug 2018 | 8,000 | 605.00 | 48,400 | 21,296,000 | 26.805 |
| National Express | Elliott Sander | 13 Aug 2018 | 1,000 | 5.39 | 5,390 | 1,000 | <0.001 |
| Nexus Infrastructure | Alexander Wiseman | 09 Aug 2018 | 5,000 | 198.35 | 9,918 | 20,000 | 0.052 |
| Porvair | John Nicholas (ch) | 10 Aug 2018 | 5,000 | 471.90 | 23,595 | 7,500 | 0.016 |
| Proteome Sciences♥ | Martin Diggle | 13 Aug 2018 | 500,000 | 3.50 | 17,500 | 58,259,431 | 19.737 |
| Scottish Oriental Smaller Companies | Anne West | 14 Aug 2018 | 20,000 | 1,027.80 | 205,560 | 22,000 | 0.074 |
| Scottish Oriental Smaller Companies | Anne West | 14 Aug 2018 | 20,000 | 1,027.80 | 205,560 | 42,000 | 0.141 |
| Spirax-Sarco Engineering♥ | James Pike | 09 Aug 2018 | 2,856 | 7,001.98 | 199,977 | 7,396 | 0.010 |
| Spire Healthcare | Justin Ash (ceo) | 09 Aug 2018 | 125,000 | 159.99 | 199,988 | 345,100 | 0.086 |
| Spire Healthcare | Garry Watts (ch) | 09 Aug 2018 | 100,000 | 160.00 | 159,996 | 603,577 | 0.150 |
| Spire Healthcare | Peter Bamford | 09 Aug 2018 | 10,000 | 160.92 | 16,092 | 19,000 | 0.005 |
| Stock Spirits | Paul Bal (cfp) | 09 Aug 2018 | 5,000 | 214.97 | 10,749 | 60,184 | 0.030 |
| TP ICap | Lorraine Trainer | 10 Aug 2018 | 10,000 | 286.98 | 28,698 | 10,000 | 0.002 |
| TT Electronics | Jack Boyer | 09 Aug 2018 | 19,296 | 259.00 | 49,977 | 59,796 | 0.037 |
| UDG Healthcare | Nigel Clerkin | 09 Aug 2018 | 20,000 | 745.00 | 149,000 | 40,000 | 0.016 |
| Wincanton | Martin Read | 10 Aug 2018 | 36,509 | 272.50 | 99,487 | 36,509 | 0.029 |
| WYG | Marcia Marini | 15 Aug 2018 | 15,875 | 63.00 | 10,001 | 15,875 | 0.021 |
| Sells | |||||||
| Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
| Admiral♥ | David Stevens (ceo) | 15 Aug 2018 | 225,000 | 2,019.00 | 4,542,750 | 8,592,950 | 2.986 |
| Ashtead | Ian Sutcliffe | 10 Aug 2018 | 24,500 | 2,389.00 | 585,305 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Countryside Properties | Ian Sutcliffe (ceo) | 14 Aug 2018 | 1,799,646 | 325.00 | 5,848,850 | 4,630,167 | 1.029 |
| Haydale Graphene Industries | Raymond Gibbs (ceo) | 10 Aug 2018 | 11,767 | 56.80 | 6,684 | 482,919 | 1.767 |
| InterContinental Hotels♥ | Paul Edgecliffe-Johnson (cfo) | 09 Aug 2018 | 15,500 | 4,700.00 | 728,500 | 113,427 | 0.059 |
| National Express | Elliott Sander | 09 Aug 2018 | 1,000 | 5.41 | 5,410 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Next | Richard Papp | 09 Aug 2018 | 1,100 | 5,713.17 | 62,845 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Next♥ | Richard Papp | 09 Aug 2018 | 27,000 | 5,713.17 | 1,542,556 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Plus500 | Michael Fairbairn | 15 Aug 2018 | 7,500 | 1,803.43 | 135,257 | 106,500 | 0.093 |
| Plus500♥ | Michael Fairbairn | 15 Aug 2018 | 3,000 | 1,809.33 | 54,280 | 64,000 | 0.056 |
| Plus500 | Michael Fairbairn | 15 Aug 2018 | 29,500 | 1,818.00 | 536,310 | 67,000 | 0.059 |
| Plus500 | Michael Fairbairn | 15 Aug 2018 | 10,000 | 1,820.00 | 182,000 | 96,500 | 0.085 |
| Sirius Real Estate | Andrew Coombs (ceo) | 13 Aug 2018 | 500,000 | 56.50 | 282,500 | 8,197,726 | 0.812 |
| Sirius Real Estate | Andrew Coombs (ceo) | 13 Aug 2018 | 500,000 | 57.00 | 285,000 | 7,697,726 | 0.763 |
| * placing/tender/open offer ♥ spouse/connected party | |||||||
