- Future Belvoir chairman invests over £20,000
- Marston's executives buy £50,ooo of shares
- Marston's shares up 20% in last 5 days
Incoming chairman of property franchise and finance group Belvoir (BLV:AIM) Jonathan Di-Stefano purchased 10,000 shares on September 5 for 225p each, spending a total of £22,500.
Di-Stefano, who will assume the position of chairman on 30 September, bought the shares after Belvoir reported its interim results (5 September).
The property franchise and financial services company reported a 12% increase in revenue for the six months ended June 30, to £15.4 million compared to £13.8 million for the same period a year earlier.
However, Belvoir saw its first half 2022 profit before tax fall to £4.0 million down from £4.8m million in the first half of 2021.
Management have maintained that the letting market remains active with strong demand from tenants, with households spending 30.2% on average of their income on rent in July, largely unchanged in the last four years.
From being a pure lettings business when it launched the firm now has a thriving estate agency selling houses and offers mortgages through the Nottingham Building Society having acquired the advisory arm in July 2022.
The tightness of the rental market and the continued strong demand for new housing and finance mean the group is perfectly placed to cover each aspect of the property market both directly and via franchisees.
Following the interim results analysts at FinnCap said:
‘With the outlook underpinned by strong pipelines in sales and mortgages and the defensive growth nature of lettings we make no changes to our full-year forecasts or target price (+71% upside based on a target 5% free cash flow yield)’.
The shares have fallen by 10.2% over the last month, and are down by 15.3% year to date.
MARSTON’S PURCHASES
Marston’s (MARS) chief financial officer Hayleigh Lupino has invested almost £20,000 worth of shares.
On September 2 Luipino bought 54,003 shares at 36.83p, equating to a value of £19,889.30.
This follows on from a purchase a day earlier by non executive director NJ Varney of 80,000 shares at a price of 35.89p
In its recent trading update for the 42 weeks to 23 July, the group reported total like-for-like sales were down 2% versus pre-pandemic.
This reflects the impact of the reintroduction of trading restrictions in December and January.
Commenting on the trading update Andrew Andrea, Chief Executive Officer, said:
‘Since COVID restrictions were lifted, we have been encouraged with the level of sales as we have transitioned to operating on a business as usual basis.
‘In spite of external economic headwinds, we have not seen any discernible change to customer footfall to date and remain cautiously optimistic that we will continue to see similar levels of customer demand across the summer where we will benefit from our investments in outside space and staycations.’
The shares have rallied by 20% in the last 5 days, but are down 44% year to date.
