As visitors to Plus500’s (PLUS) website are reminded, 76.4 per cent of all retail investor accounts lose money on the derivatives platform. That hasn’t stopped punters from trading in record numbers in recent weeks, a fact which has not gone unnoticed by a raft of senior managers at the Haifa-headquartered firm.
On the 17 and 18 March, six senior figures including managing director Gal Haber and co-founder Alon Gonen collectively bought 1.8 million shares worth a combined £14m. Chief technology officer Ari Shotland followed suit on 19 and 20 March when he acquired £27,101-worth of shares in the open market, at prices ranging between 737p and 825p.
The purchases were understandable. On 16 March, the company issued a trading update which stated that revenue and profits were expected to be “substantially ahead of current consensus expectations” for 2020. Despite this, the stock tanked to 731p a share.
While the decline followed a broader market sell-off, investors still have other reasons to avoid the stock. The potential impact of looming Australian regulatory change is still unquantified, and management says it remains difficult to forecast revenues with any degree of accuracy.
In this regard, Plus500 is not alone. Last week, rival IG Group (IGG) said “unprecedented” levels of volatility and client trading in March had made it impossible to provide accurate guidance for its current April-end quarter, while CMC Markets (CMCX) said recent activity on its platform has been more than double normal volumes.
Buys | ||||||
Company | Director/PDMR | Date | No. of shares | Price (p) | Aggregate value (£) | Comments |
Lloyds Banking Group | Lord Lupton | 16 Mar 20 | 250,000 | 33.2 | 83,000 | |
IWG | Mark Dixon (ceo) | 17 Mar 20 | 241,924 | 144.65 | 349,943 | 28.2% position |
Wizz Air | William Franke (ch) | 17 Mar 20 | 30,000 | 2,355 | 706,500 | |
IWG | Mark Dixon (ceo) | 18 Mar 20 | 1,600,000 | 115.2 | 1,843,200 | Weighted average price |
Cineworld | Eric Senat | 18 Mar 20 | 423,410 | 23.5 | 99,501 | |
Cineworld | Anthony Bloom (ch) | 18 Mar 20 | 839,704 | 276.49 | 232,173 | PCA |
EMIS Group | Andrew Thorburn (ceo) | 18 Mar 20 | 10,000 | 767.34 | 76,734 | |
Man Group | Luke Ellis | 16 Mar 20 | 123,018 | 95 | 116855 | |
Man Group | Luke Ellis | 17 Mar 20 | 626,982 | 95.0 | 595,633 | |
Man Group | Robyn Grew (coo) | 18 Mar 20 | 153,200 | 97.7 | 149,653 | |
Man Group | Mark Jones (cfo) | 16 Mar 20 | 500,000 | 93.4145 | 467,073 | |
M&G | John Foley | 16 Mar 20 | 150,000 | 111 | 166,500 | |
M&G | Jonathan Daniels (cio) | 16 Mar 20 | 150,000 | 111.6 | 167,400 | |
M&G | Mike Evans (chair) | 18 Mar 20 | 51,627 | 96.85 | 50,000 | |
Plus500 | Alon Gonen | 17/18 Mar 20 | 1,101,442 | 766.0 | 8,437,904 | |
Plus500 | Gal Haber (md) | 17/18 Mar 20 | 264,312 | 800.0 | 2,114,496 | |
Plus500 | Omer Elazari | 17 Mar 20 | 100,000 | 794.0 | 794,000 | |
Plus500 | Shlomi Weizmann | 17 Mar 20 | 100,000 | 794.0 | 794,000 | |
Plus500 | Elad Ben Izhak | 17 Mar 20 | 229,587 | 800.0 | 1,836,696 | |
Standard Life Aberdeen | Norman Keith Skeoch (ceo) | 17 Mar 20 | 50,294 | 197.4 | 99,255 | |
Standard Life Aberdeen | Stephanie Jane Bruce (cfo) | 18 Mar 20 | 25,914 | 191.5 | 49,625 | |
Gamesys | Neil Goulden (exec ch) | 18 Mar 20 | 19,500 | 549.0 | 107,055 | |
Gamesys | Robeseon Reeves (coo) | 19 Mar 20 | 35,000 | 653.0 | 228,550 | |
UDG Healthcare | Peter Gray (ch) | 18 Mar 20 | 20,000 | 450.0 | 90,800 | |
UDG Healthcare | Shane Cooke | 18 Mar 20 | 15,500 | 442.3 | 68,557 | |
UDG Healthcare | Brendan McAtamney (ceo) | 19 Mar 20 | 25,000 | 454.0 | 113,500 | |
UDG Healthcare | Nigel Clerkin (cfo) | 19 Mar 20 | 20,000 | 516.5 | 103,300 | |
IWG | Mark Dixon (ceo) | 19 Mar 20 | 295,800 | 107.6 | 318,281 | Weighted average price |
Barclays | Janet Ashley | 19 Mar 20 | 132,802 | 74.6 | 99,034 | PCA of Mike Ashley, non-exec director |
Playtech | Mor Weizer (ceo) | 19 Mar 20 | 134,000 | 134.0 | 179,486 | |
Playtech | Andrew Smith (cfo) | 19 Mar 20 | 45,000 | 129.0 | 58,220 | |
Auto Trader | David Keens | 19 Mar 20 | 25,000 | 361.0 | 90,259 | |
CLS Holdings | Bengt Mortstedt | 19 Mar 20 | 311,980 | 159.6 | 497,920 | |
CLS Holdings | Bengt Mortstedt | 20 Mar 20 | 188,020 | 159.2 | 299,328 | |
Synthomer | Calum MacLean (ceo) | 19 Mar 20 | 11,000 | 192.0 | 21,210 | |
Synthomer | Calum MacLean (ceo) | 20 Mar 20 | 305,677 | 211.5 | 646,476 | |
JD Wetherspoon | John Hutson (ceo) | 20 Mar 20 | 12,000 | 757.0 | 90,840 | |
Elementis | Paul Waterman (ceo) | 20 Mar 20 | 200,000 | 49.1 | 98,288 | Converted from US$ |
Genel Energy | Bilgin Grup Dogalgaz | 20 Mar 20 | 1,015,000 | 81.4 | 826,161 | PCA of Umit Tolga Bilgin |
Genel Energy | Bilgin Grup Dogalgaz | 23 Mar 20 | 170,618 | 84.4 | 144,003 | |
CLS Holdings | Sten Mortstedt | 23 Mar 20 | 300,000 | 158.5 | 475,500 |