Insider: more buying at this popular trust and an AIM heavyweight  

Highly respected investor and fund manager Michael Lindsell has continued to pick up stock in the investment trust he runs with Nick Train.

Lindsell is a regular investor in Lindsell Train Ord (LSE:LTI), particularly through 2023 when the share price consolidated following a steep decline, before experiencing another lurch lower at the end of July.

Shares in the trust - the most expensive on the FTSE All-Share index at £880 – have halved in value since summer 2021 and currently trade at their lowest since Covid crash three-and-a-half years ago. As well as investments in London Stock Exchange Group (LSE:LSEG), Nintendo and Diageo (LSE:DGE), the trust has a 37% stake in Lindsell Train Limited.

Lindsell bought 25 shares at £903 on 14th September at a cost of £22,575, then a further 25 shares at £902 on the 15th, taking total spend to just over £45,000. He was joined by non-executive director David MacLellan who picked up 75 shares at £900 worth £67,500 on 12 September.

A month ago, Lindsell bought two shapes of 25 shares on 21 August at £910 and £915, and another two shapes of 25 on 9 August, both at £979.50. That takes his total spend in the past five weeks to almost £140,000.

At the annual results published in June, the trust announced a final dividend of £51.50 per share. The shares traded ex dividend on 10 August and paid out on 12 September, so there’s at least some compensation for the sharp drop in share price.

• Trusts losing out to open-ended peers this year – with one exception

Investment trusts have had a rough 2023, with discounts – the difference between the share price and net asset value - widening to their widest since the dark days of 2008 and the financial crisis. Data from Morningstar shows a typical global trust now trading on an 11% discount, UK All Companies trusts on 13% and UK Smaller Companies 15%.

An expensive round of Fevertree shares

There’s also been buying at a company in which Lindsell Train Limited is the major shareholder.

Publication of half-year results last Tuesday meant directors were free to trade their Fevertree Drinks (LSE:FEVR) shares again. And it was non-executive director Kevin Havelock who took the chance to add to his stake in the upmarket carbonated mixers firm.

Two days after the numbers, Havelock, on the board since 2018, spent almost £130,000 on 10,243 shares at a volume weighted average price of £12.69. According to data site SharePad, he now owns 175,000 shares.

Lindsell Train, which owns 15% of Fevertree, will be relieved to see its shares continue a trend in the right direction since the six-year low at 805p recorded last autumn. They’re currently up 60% but had been worth almost £29 as recently as January 2022.

• ii view: Fevertree optimistic about the year ahead

Fevertree, currently the fourth-largest company on the AIM market at £1.5 billion, last week reduced its annual profit forecast to £30-£36 million, down from prior guidance for £36-£42 million.

While full-year revenue rose 9% to £175.6 million, weather has been terrible this summer and costs are still rising. However, adjusted profit margin is now forecast to come in at 15% in 2024, better than the 13.6% predicted by City forecasters.