In our weekly series, James Norris looks at directors buying and selling shares in their own company over the last week.
- Non-exec adds to Fevertree Drinks holding
- Directors buying shares in FDM Group
- Oxford Biomedica subsidiary CEO granted shares
- Close Brothers CEO buys shares before ex-div date
- Ninety One staff increase collective holding to 25%
Fevertree Drinks (LON: FEVR) non-executive director Domenic De Lorenzo and family member Rebecca De Lorenzo each bought 1,050 shares at the price of £18.47 for each share on 17 March. Shares in Fever-Tree, the supplier of premium carbonated mixers, currently trading at 1,586p, have slumped -46% YTD, hitting a 52-week low of 1,456p on 10 March, before recovering with a 27% jump. Much of the stock’s performance so far reflects the first quarter slump in the wider UK stock market, on investor concerns about the ramifications of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but it also reflects the FTSE All Share’s recovery of 9.5% over the past two weeks.
Directors at the FDM Group (LON: FDM), a global professional services provider with a focus on information technology, all acquired shares in the company on 18 March. CEO Roderick Flavell bought 4,555 shares; COO Sheila Flavell, 3,294 shares; CCO Andrew Brown, 3,294; CFO Michael McLaren, 3,226; and CIO Jonathan Young, 3,017. All shares were bought at £9.73. FDM stock, currently trading at 978p, so far this year has seen the same rollercoaster as much of the rest of the UK stock market, plunging 37% from January and reaching a 52-week low of 830p on 7 March, before recovering almost 18%.
Oxford Biomedica (LSE: OXB), a leading gene and cell therapy group, on 18 March granted Tim Kelly, CEO of the subsidiary Oxford Biomedica Solutions, an aggregate of 152,777 shares at nil value. Of these shares, 58,761 are subject to performance targets being achieved, calculated over a three-year period. The shares package was granted as part of a deal signed with Homology Medecines (Nasdaq: FIXX), a US genetic medicines company in January this year, to establish Oxford Biomedica Solutions, a new US-based adeno-associated virus manufacturing and innovation business. Homology will have a 20% stake in OBS. Oxford Biomedica stock is trading at 678p, just off its 52-week low of 577p on 7 March.
Close Brothers (LON: CBG) Group CEO Adrian Sainsbury, after months of buying small packets of shares, has bought 3,408 shares at a price of £11.67 each, for a total of £39,779. The CBG stock will trade ex-dividend on 24 March, which means that shareholders who have bought on or after that date are not eligible to receive the dividend, when it is paid on 27 April. Dividends are of particular interest to long-term holders, such as Sainsbury, but only if the company continues to pay dividends. His purchase of shares just before the deadline therefore would indicate his confidence in the strength of the company’s ongoing profit stream. Close Brothers stock is trading at 1,192p, a performance of -15.1% YTD and -25.9% over 12 months.
Ninety One (LON: N91) staff on 16 March bought more than 10 million shares in their company (formerly Investec Asset Management), for £25.4m at £2.44 each. The acquisition was made through Forty Two Point Two, an investment vehicle associated with CEO Hendrik du Toit and CFO Kim McFarland. The acquisition is the latest in a series made every week over the past 12 months in varying sizes, such as the acquisition on 4 February of 1.0 million shares, worth £2.6m. Forty Two Point Two has so far built up its holding in N91 to 25%. The N91 stock price in London is currently trading at 245p, giving an unusually positive 11.9% return YTD and a one-year return of 7.67%.
