Insider: directors deal in Vistry shares, Greggs and AIM’s biggest stock

Directors at Next (LSE:NXT) and Greggs (LSE:GRG) have raised a combined £4.4 million after dealing shares in their companies at levels significantly higher than a year ago.

The Next disposal involving Lipsy founders Jeremy and Marcelle Stakol netted £2.6 million, a fortnight after chief executive Simon Wolfson sold shares worth £29 million.

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Next recently traded above £100 for the first time, getting a further boost last month when the chain lifted its full-year profit guidance by another £15 million to £995 million. Wolfson’s dealings were at between 10,003p and 10,156p, while the Stakols sold on Wednesday at 9,878p.

Jeremy Stakol has been an executive director since last year, having joined the company as Lipsy managing director after the women’s clothing brand was bought by Next 16 years ago.

He has since led many of Next’s new investment deals and Total Platform opportunities, including Joules, Victoria’s Secret and Gap. Marcelle is Lipsy brand director.

Next shares closed last week at 10,195p, which compares with 6,864p in October last year and 1,135p at the time Lipsy was bought for an initial £17.4 million.

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At FTSE 250-listed Greggs, finance director and long-serving employee Richard Hutton generated proceeds of £1.8 million after selling 65,000 shares at a price of 2,851p.

The food-on-the-go firm traded at 2,282p in October last year, peaking at 3,190p last month before a sell-off in the wake of its in-line third quarter trading update.

Like-for-like sales in company-owned stores increased by 5%, slower than the half-year’s 7.4% after tougher comparatives offset a strong finish to the quarter.

Cost inflation for the year is set to be towards the lower end of the previous guidance range of 4-5%, prompting City bank Jefferies to leave its price target at 3,450p.

The disclosures by Next and Greggs gave no reasons for the disposals.

Is slump an opportunity?

In other dealings in the FTSE 350 index, Vistry Group (LSE:VTY) chief executive Greg Fitzgerald has spent £200,000 backing the housebuilder in the aftermath of last week’s profit warning.

Non-executive director Chris Browne, who joined the board in September 2014 and recently agreed to extend her stay by a further year, also made an investment worth £75,000.

They bought their shares at prices between 950p and 967p, which compared with 1,278p before last week’s warning caused by overly optimistic cost assumptions in its South division.

Management told investors the issues are confined to the one division and reiterated medium-term targets that include £800 million operating profit and the three-year return of £1 billion through ordinary and special distributions.

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UBS has held a ‘sell’ rating on Vistry since October last year and reduced its target price from 1,115p to 880p, whereas Deutsche Numis cut its target by 22% to 1,180p but kept its ‘buy’ position.

The latter said: “In our view, if this proves to be a one-off problem, Vistry's shares have the potential to bounce back strongly. However, if this proves to be a wider issue, there could be further downside risk.”

Fitzgerald was a regular buyer of Vistry shares during the company’s elevation to the FTSE 100, a rise fuelled by 2022’s transformative merger with Countryside Partnerships and focus on meeting the UK’s need for affordable mixed tenure housing.

Most recently in early May, he spent £275,000 at a price of 1,180p. The shares closed last week at 923p, boosted on Friday by a strong session for the housebuilding sector and earlier £7 million purchase by the company's largest shareholder, Los Angeles-based Browning West.

Hop aboard this AIM giant

Jet2 Ordinary Shares (LSE:JET2), the biggest stock on AIM whose £3 billion valuation matches Vistry as the smallest in the FTSE 100, received £20,000 of boardroom support last week.

Former N Brown chief executive Angela Luger, who joined Jet2 in a non-executive role in July of last year, bought shares in two tranches at between 1,378p and 1,395p.

Her investment follows a strong end to the summer for the wider travel industry as well as for the company’s shares, which are up by about 11% since early July.

It is the second purchase by a member of the Jet2 board since September’s move by former executive chair Philip Meeson to offload five million shares equivalent to a 2.3% stake.

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A statement said his disposal was driven by personal financial considerations, adding that he believed the company’s leadership in Holidays and a firm order for 146 Airbus A321 aircraft left it well positioned in a market with huge potential.

The company added: “He believes there is a great future for Jet2 and he expects to continue as a very substantial shareholder in Jet2 going forward.”