In our weekly series, James Norris looks at directors buying and selling shares in their own companies over the last week.
- Chairman sells 100k Hilton Food Group shares
- Director selling 395k D4t4 Solutions shares following board exit
- CFO sells 150k OSB Group shares as part of buyback programme
- Oxford Biomedica Chairman adds 58k shares to holding
- Quarto Group Director purchases 60k shares
Hilton Food Group (LSE: HFG) chairman Robert Watson last Friday sold 100,000 shares at 1,200p, for a total of £1,200,000. The transaction leaves him with 2.17m shares in the company. Three months ago, on 28 January, Watson offloaded another 50,000 shares at 1,007p for a total of £503,784. The company’s preliminary results on 6 April reported strong earnings, profits “in line with the 11% compound annual growth rate we have delivered in our fourteen years as a listed business” and growth prospects underpinned by acquisitions. HFG shares closed for trading yesterday at 1,208p, just off the the 52-week peak of 1,290p (on 30 March), a return of 5.96% YTD and were flat over 12 months.
D4t4 Solutions (AIM: D4T4) director Peter Kear on 20 April sold 395,000 ordinary shares in the company at 237p, for a total of £936,150. Following this sale, Kear’s holding amounts to 1,270,752 ordinary shares representing 3.16% of the company’s issued share capital. Shares in D4t4, the AIM-listed data solutions provider, closed trading yesterday at 250p, a return of -29.9% YTD and -25.8% over 12 months. Kear is stepping down from the Board but will remain with the Group to advise in a non-board capacity until 30 June 2022.
OSB Group (LSE: OSB) chief financial officer April Talintyre last Friday sold 150,000 shares at 604.5p, for a total of £906,750. She sold another 83,385 shares on 17 March at 520.6p, for a total of £434,167. A number of directors also sold their shares last week as part of the company’s share buyback programme, announced on 17 March. The shares are to be cancelled. The company is a specialist lending and retail savings group that reports under two segments, OneSavings Bank and Charter Court Financial Services. OSB shares closed for trading yesterday at 567.5p, a return of 2.3% YTD and 20.1% over 12 months.
Oxford Biomedica (LSE: OXB) chairman and interim chief executive Dr. Roch Doliveux on 21 April increased his shareholding in the company with the purchase of 58,219 ordinary shares at a price of 589.3p, for a total of £343,102. On the same day, deputy chairman Stuart Henderson bought 1,000 shares at a price of 589.2p. Doliveux’s purchase looks bold, as shares in Oxford Biomedica, a leading gene and cell therapy group, have been on a steady slide since peaking at 1,634p last September. At close of trading yesterday, they were worth 559p, a return of -54.5% YTD and -46.6% over 12 months.
Hamak Gold (LSE: HAMA) non-executive director Martin Lampshire has acquired an aggregate 400,000 of the company shares at no par value, representing 1.92% of the issued share capital. Lampshire, with more than 30 years of industry experience, has just been appointed to the Board. Hamak, a gold miner with a portfolio of assets in Liberia, began trading on the London Stock Exchange on 1 March 2022, and has just announced positive soil sampling results with ‘significant’ gold anomalies at their Gozohn licence. At close of trading yesterday, shares in Hamak were worth 9.88p.
Quarto Group (LSE: QRT) director Chuk Kin Lau, through 1010 Printing Ltd, has bought 60,000 shares at 167p, for a total of £100,200. He bought a second tranche of 40,000 shares at 170p, for £68,000. Following these transactions, 1010 Printing Ltd holds 49.84% of the company’s issued share capital. Shares in the US-domiciled but London-listed company have performed well over the year, and finished yesterday at 168.8p, a return of 46.8% YTD and 113.8% over 12 months.
