It’s been a quieter week for director deals given the Bank Holiday weekend, but a number of company bosses and non-executive directors have still been busy dealing in their companies’ shares.
The most notable transaction comes from FTSE 100 chemicals company Croda International (CRDA), whose chief financial officer Jez Maiden sold around 10,600 shares this week at a price of £63.82 each in a deal worth over £675,000 in total.
The deal is Maiden’s second big share sale in less than a year, after he sold 6,800 shares last May at a price of £50.19 each in a deal totaling around £340,000.
CRODA SHARES ON STRONG RUN
Croda shares have been on a strong over the past year and have soared over 20% above their pre-pandemic levels to around the £64 mark, putting the company on a rich valuation of around 31 times 12-month forward price-to-earnings.
The firm has held up reasonably well despite the impact of the pandemic with its results for 2020, published last month, showing a 2.2% increase in sales to £1.29 billion and a relatively small 6.7% drop in pre-tax profit to £300 million.
Croda has been in the news recently due to its contract with Pfizer to supply lipid nanoparticles, or fatty molecules, for its coronavirus vaccines.
Reports suggested exports of Croda’s LNPs to Pfizer’s EU factories could be blocked amid a row over vaccines between the UK and EU. However, while there is potential for this to have a short-term impact on sentiment, this is unlikely to have any impact on the huge medium and long-term opportunity for the company. Croda is a running Shares Great Idea.
OTHER DEALS
A number of non-executive directors in particular have been busy buying and selling shares over the past week.
One notable purchase comes from Simon Downing, a non-executive director at online estate agent Purplebricks (PURP:AIM), who this week bought over 257,000 shares at 97p each in a deal worth around £250,000.
It’s the second time in less than a year Downing has made a big purchase of Purplebricks shares, having snapped 500,000 shares at a much lower price of 57p, in a deal worth £287,500 at the time, in August.
Meanwhile Greggs (GRG) finance director Richard Hutton has sold 9,000 shares in the business at a price of £23.30 each in a deal worth over £200,000.
It comes less than a month after chief executive Roger Whiteside sold over 100,000 shares in two separate deals worth a combined £2.1 million. The food-on-the-go firm recently reported its first ever loss as a listed business after Covid-19 lockdowns crunched sales during the financial year to 2 January 2021.
For a full list of the week’s most significant trades, click here.
