Two of the most notable director deals of the past week appear, at least on the surface, to show bosses with contrasting views on their businesses at the moment.
One boss has offloaded a hefty load of shares after a strong rally, while another has bought up a sizeable sum following a recent dip.
Cake Box (CBOX:AIM) chief executive Sukh Chamdal, who founded the £70 million market cap company in 2008, sold 3.75 million shares this week at a price of 170p each, netting a total of £6.37 million.
It comes after the egg-free cake purveyor said earlier this month that trading since June, when it reopened its shops after lockdown, had been ‘very strong’ with like-for-like sales in the three months to 31 August growing 14.1% in franchise stores. Online sales also continued to grow, rising around 74% year-on-year.
Shares in the business have rebounded strongly since the market selloff in March and early April, rising from a low of 110p on 3 April to around 175p today.
BALFOUR BOSS TOPS UP
Meanwhile Balfour Beatty (BBY) chief executive Leo Quinn has shown his faith in the business after buying just over 226,000 shares at 221p, in a transaction costing £500,000 in total.
It comes after a dip in the construction giant’s share price after it revealed the coronavirus pandemic had pushed the company into a pre-tax loss over the first half of this year.
Even the announcement of two very large contract wins in Hong Kong, worth almost £2 billion and in a country where margins on projects are typically higher than its other core markets of the UK and US, has done little to significantly move Balfour’s share price.
That could be because the full impact of the new deals on earnings is yet to become clear, and the company has warned it would take until 2021 for operating profits to get back to 2019 levels due to the impact of the pandemic.
