Barclays & Smiths News: Big director share deals this week

No one knows a company quite as well as its directors, which is why it is worth keeping an eye on their buying and selling of shares. 

We have combed through UK directors' deals and published the purchases and sales that caught our eye. Our table is compiled using company announcements and is not exhaustive.

Find out which company shares are being bought by their own directors this week and keep an eye on those which are being sold. 

Barclays bosses trim their stakes

Many investors are sceptical about Barclays (BARC) and it is easy to see why. Since the financial crisis, the bank has been engulfed by regulatory scandals, boardroom showdowns, rows with activist investors and investment banking problems. 

After setting out a new strategy at the start of 2024, however, the FTSE 100 stock has been showing signs of life. Its share price has risen by two-thirds since January and analysts are more cheerful than they have been for a decade. 

Just last month, Barclays beat market estimates by delivering profit before tax of £2.2bn in the third quarter. It also nudged up its full-year guidance for net interest income to over £11bn, fuelled by a strong performance in the UK. The recent acquisition of Tesco Bank is expected to boost the significance of the UK further. 

Directors at Barclays are making the most of the share price gains. This month, Denny Nealon, chief executive of Barclays’ US consumer bank, sold more than 100,000 shares for £2.44 each, or £255,000 in total. There have been a series of smaller transactions too. Cathal Deasy, co-head of investment banking, sold 15,685 shares for a total of £40,420, and chief compliance officer Matthew Fitzwater sold more than 8,000 shares for roughly £20,000. 

The stock could have further to run, however. Analysts at Peel Hunt said the positive financial momentum at Barclays provides “effective support for the shares”. It added the credibility of its goal of returning more than £10bn to shareholders over the next three years “continues to strengthen”. 

Analysts at Shore Capital are also bullish, arguing that Barclays trades at an undeserved discount to its tangible book value after “proving the sceptics wrong”. JS

<boxout><title>Smiths News director offloads shares<title>

On the day that Smiths News (SNWS) detailed a marked step-up in shareholder returns, group chief executive Jonathan Bunting offloaded shares worth £716,075 in aggregate. The sale has reduced his holding to a level not seen since October 2020, with the deal price of 60.56p a share only slightly adrift of the five-year high recorded in May of this year.

The share sale was conducted at a time when the group is clearly in a giving mood. The newspaper wholesaler, which operates through its Smiths News Core, Dawson Media Direct and Instore segments, has bumped up its final dividend to 3.4p a share, against 2.75p last time around. And it has also taken the decision to dole out a 2p special dividend into the bargain. That translates to a return of over £17.2mn through FY2024 and an effective double-digit dividend yield.

Bunting has pointed out that Smiths has secured 91 per cent of its publisher revenue streams through to 2029 – commendable enough, but the forward yield is also a reflection of concerns over the balance sheet and continued margin pressure. The shares now trade at a 26 per cent discount to the consensus target on a forward rating of 5.8 times forecast earnings. Some may perceive this as an enticing entry multiple, but it’s also arguably a pointer to wavering investor sentiment, despite the shares’ recent run-up. MR