Liam Condon, CEO of Johnson Matthey (JMAT) has bought 15,000 shares at £15.45 for a total value of £231,701 on 6 December.

Condon’s purchase signals that he has faith in the chemicals company. Several weeks ago, the chemicals company raised its full year operating performance despite reporting a 11% fall in revenue to £6.5 billion for the six months ending 30 September.

‘We now expect at least high single digit growth in operating performance at constant precious metal prices,’ the company said.

Johnson Matthey also said it was on track to deliver more than £150 million annualised savings by the end of 2024/25, however it would incur a £17 million charge associated with restructuring.

Year-to-date shares are down 22% to the £16.34 mark.

BARCLAYS CHAIRMAN SNAPS UP OVER £277,000 SHARES

Nigel Higgins, group chairman of Barclays (BARC) has bought 200,00 shares at 139p for a total value of £277,340 on 7 December.

Higgins might be doing a bit of bargain-hunting with this purchase after Barclays shares hit a six-month low at the end of October after a disappointing update and outlook.

The UK bank reported lower pre-tax profit of £1.88 billion with a net profit of £1.54 billion (10% lower) missing market estimates.

Year-to-date Barclays shares are down 13%.

ARBUTHNOT CEO INCREASES SHAREHOLDINGS

Sir Henry Angest, chairman and CEO of Arbuthnot Banking (ARBB:AIM) has bought 69,941 shares at 975p for a total value of £681,925 on 5 December.

Angest now holds 9,176,185 ordinary shares representing 56.69% of the company's voting rights.

Angest also holds 86,674 ordinary non-voting shares representing 64.88% of the total in issue excluding shares held in Treasury.

Arbuthnot shares have performed well year-to-date up 18% to the £10.10 mark.

In July 2023 the banking group reported an impressive set of unaudited half-year results – pre-tax profits climbed to £26.4 million, and the company raised its interim dividend to 19p per share, compared with 17p per share in June 2022.

LEARN MORE ABOUT BARCLAYS

---