In our weekly series, James Norris looks at directors buying and selling shares in their own company over the last week.
- Syncona CEO buys 62k shares
- Redrow director buys as news of government contributions dropped
- Non-exec director buys shares in The Artisanal Spirits Company
- Chairman & CEO buy Trustpilot shares
- Strix Group senior board members buy stock
- Senior executives invest $3m in Burford Capital
Syncona (LSE: SYNC) CEO Martin Murphy on 4 April bought 61,700 shares at £1.65 each, worth £101,805. Shares in the London-based investment company focused on the healthcare sector were down after news last week that one of its portfolio companies, Freeline Therapeutics Holdings, a biotechnology company focused on liver directed gene therapies, reported increased losses last year on increased research and development spending. Shares were trading yesterday at 168.2p, which is -20.66% YTD and -32.31% over 12 months.
Redrow (LSE: RDW) director Rosemary Sandell on 4 April bought 12,529 shares at £5.19 each, worth £65,025, on the same day as London-listed housebuilder shares rallied briefly on news that the government would drop its demand for housebuilders to contribute towards a £4bn cladding remediation fund, proposed in the wake of the Grenfell housing disaster. Redrow shares are currently trading at 525p, a performance of -25.09% YTD and -17.09% over 12 months.
The Artisanal Spirits Company (AIM: ART) non-executive director Helen Page on 1 April 2022 bought 27,027 ordinary shares in the company at a price of 74p per share, worth almost £20,000. The company owns The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, the leading curator and provider of premium single cask Scotch malt whisky and other spirits. The stock has been on the slide since its 52-week high of 126p in June last year, when it was admitted for trading on AIM, and is currently trading at 71.1p, a loss of almost 44%, and a performance of -25.94% YTD.
Trustpilot Group (LSE: TRST) chief financial officer Hanno Damm on 5 April bought 16,000 shares at £1.46 each for £23,374.40. Chairman of the board Timothy Weller has bought 739,986 shares, at a weighted average price per share of £0.68, for a total of about £505,870. For 2022, Trustpilot expects to deliver ‘constant currency revenue growth in line with management expectations’, based on the robust revenue growth seen in 2021. Shares in the Danish online review platform fell some 14% on 22 March to 137.8p when it reported widening losses for 2021, but have since recovered and are trading at 148.40p, giving a performance of -54.47% YTD and -44% over 12 months.
Strix Group (AIM: KETL), a manufacturer of kettle safety controls and other complementary water temperature management components, has announced that chief executive Mark Bartlett, chief finance officer Raudres Wong and chairman Gary Lamb have purchased 134,249, 22,200 and 44,400 ordinary shares respectively at a price of 199p per share. Non-executive director Richard Sells has also bought 9,894 ordinary shares at a price of 202p per share.
Burford Capital (LSE: BUR) senior executives have in aggregate invested $3m in Burford’s stock since March 31, 2022. The New York-based legal finance and asset management firm on 4 April announced that chief executive Christopher Bogart acquired 140,400 shares, chief investment officer Jonathan Molot 140,191 shares, chief financial officer Kenneth Brause 5,269 and co-chief operating officer Aviva Will, 15,168. Perla’s investment, expected to be about 12,000 shares and an additional 5,000 shares for Brause are to be announced in due course. All used their cash compensation to make the investments through the Burford employee deferred compensation plan. Bogart and Molot together control almost 9% of Burford’s shares.