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Ocado directors buy in as shares wobble

Two non-exec directors bought around £100,000 worth in shares
February 17, 2021
  • Non-executive directors bought in after shares dipped 
  • Momentum still not lost 

Two Ocado (OCDO) directors bought shares in the company last week, taking advantage of a wobble in the share price following the release of a mixed 2020 full year result. Non-executive directors Richard Haythornthwaite and John Martin both bought around £100,000 worth of shares, after the market knocked 5 per cent off the group’s value over the course of last week. 

The highly rated grocer, which now bills itself as a technology company and has a valuation to match, failed to impress its shareholders. Adjusted cash profits at its retail business, a joint venture with Marks & Spencer (MKS), more than tripled, but the group logged deeper losses at international solutions, the division which sells its proprietary warehouse software and is viewed as its long-term driver for growth. 

Pre-tax losses narrowed to £44m compared to £215m the year prior, and the company is making decent gains in market share. Ocado’s addressable markets are worth £2.8tn, of which its partners already represent 7.5 per cent - but we would have expected that 2020 would have been a bumper year for adding new corporate customers to its automated warehouse business. The absence of new partnership announcements was conspicuous.  

Ocado did not offer a comment on Haythornthwaite and Martin’s transactions, but the new buys might help shore up confidence in the sustainability of the shares’ current trajectory - although at time of writing they have not yet recovered to their level at the beginning of last week. Excitement about rapid growth in the online grocery market was their main driver last year, but it is still not clear if Ocado’s technology will be a hit with corporate clients in the long run. Hold at 2,609p.

Buys    
CompanyDirector/PDMRDatePrice (p)Aggregate value (£)
DCCCormac McCarthy11 Feb 20215,71045,678
HalmaDame Louise Makin09 Feb 20212,459245,906
N BrownJoshua Jacob Moshe Alliance11 Feb 2021655,101,720
N BrownJoshua Jacob Moshe Alliance12 Feb 2021652,175,473
OcadoRichard Haythornthwaite10 Feb 20212,67999,809
OcadoJohn Martin12 Feb 20212,59199,990
SafestyleMike Gallacher (ce)10 Feb 202140.548,697
St. Modwen PropertiesSarwjit Sambhi (ce)12 Feb 202139152,025
Sells    
CompanyDirector/PDMRDatePrice (p)Aggregate value (£)
AshmoreMark Coombs (ce)10 Feb 202147440,290,000
AVEVA GroupDavid Ward (fd)12 Feb 20213,777152,264
CMC MarketsClare Leslie Salmon10 Feb 202140950,008
Dunelm*Will Adderley16 Feb 20211,280192,000,000
Hargreaves Lansdown*Peter Hargreaves17 Feb 20211,535300,000,000
ManoleteSteven Cooklin (ce)09 Feb 2021180450,000
Scapa GroupWendy Baker09 Feb 202122231,718
Sirius Real EstateAndrew Coombs (ce)12 Feb 202191408,479
* Accelerated bookbuilds of 19.5m ords (HL) and 15m ords (DNLM)