Insider: a big Lloyds Bank share trade by FTSE 100 boardroom veteran

This experienced director has made one of the high street bank’s biggest insider deals of 2022. Our City writer also has the detail on trading activity at three other companies.

A former Barclays (LSE:BARC) executive who joined the board of Lloyds Banking Group (LSE:LLOY) last month has spent £200,000 making one of the lender’s biggest insider purchases of the year.

Cathy Turner’s investment, which took place on Wednesday at a price of 46.9p, follows her appointment as a non-executive director at the start of November.

It was the biggest purchase by a board member since Lloyds chair Robin Budenberg bought 500,000 shares in the aftermath of February’s annual results at a price of 47.4p.

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Turner’s acquisition of 424,113 shares already gives her one of the largest shareholdings among the non-executive directors on the Lloyds board.

She knows financial services and the UK banking sector well, having worked in senior executive positions at Barclays with responsibilities spanning human resources, executive compensation, investor relations, strategy and brand marketing.

Turner also serves on the boards of fellow FTSE 100-listed stock Rentokil Initial (LSE:RTO), where she heads the remuneration committee, and instrument technology business Spectris (LSE:SXS).

Last week’s purchase by Turner came at the end of a month in which Lloyds shares have shown signs of momentum. They rose 10% in November but remain within this year’s 40p and 50p range, despite the significant boost to margins from higher interest rates and evidence of resilience in the jobs market.

Fears over a house price slump have dampened investor enthusiasm towards the Halifax mortgages owner, even though many City analysts argue that UK banks are fundamentally different from a lending risk perspective than in past cycles.

UBS’s Jason Napier has Lloyds as his top pick in the UK banking sector and believes shares should be trading at 70p. He said the third quarter earnings season had exposed some attractive valuations in a UK banking sector that trades on 5.5 times forecast earnings.

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He is particularly positive on Lloyds due to a yield of 5% and the potential for February’s annual results to include a shares buyback of £2.25 billion worth 7% of market value.

Dr Martens shares going cheap

Other boardroom purchases last week included at FTSE 250-listed Dr. Martens Ordinary Shares (LSE:DOCS), where shares have been trading at close to half their 370p flotation price in January 2021.

Tuesday’s purchase worth £11,340 by Lynne Weedall, who has held senior roles at Whitbread (LSE:WTB), Tesco (LSE:TSCO) and Dixons Carphone, was made at a price of 189p. This compared with 292p prior to the boot maker’s warning a few days earlier about variable trading patterns and impact of a strong dollar on the margin outlook for the rest of the financial year.

Results for the first half were in line with expectations, with revenues up 18% to £418.6 million and underlying earnings in line with the previous year at £88.8 million.

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Shares finished the week at 208.4p, representing a 10% upside from Weedall’s purchase price. Broker Peel Hunt reiterated its “add” recommendation following the interim results, believing the company’s medium-term growth story remained intact.

West End shopping spree

At leisure business XP Factory (LSE:XPF), the Oxford Street opening of a flagship site for the Boom Battle Bar and Escape Hunt brands has been marked by a boardroom purchase of shares.

Chief operating officer Andrew Jacobs spent £14,500 on the AIM-listed stock at a price of 18.5p, which compares with this year’s trading range of 11p to 33.4p.

The co-location opening is in line with XP’s target to have 27 open Boom sites by the end of 2022, offering activities including augmented reality axe throwing, karaoke and shuffleboard. Its Escape Hunt immersive games are now found at 44 sites, with 23 being franchised.

Richard Harpham said after last week’s Oxford Street opening that the company had made “tremendous progress” this year. He said: “Being able to secure such a premium location is testament to the group's success in difficult markets in the last few years and the growing attraction of experiential leisure to landlords.”

Buying cyber stock

Elsewhere on AIM, cybersecurity software company Intercede Group (LSE:IGP) disclosed that chairman Royston Hoggarth had spent £25,000 on its shares at an average price of 50.9p.

The purchase took place on Thursday and followed Hoggarth’s first set of results in the role, when he announced double-digit revenues growth for the half-year and an unchanged outlook for the remainder of the financial period.

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Intercede is currently working to complete its first ever acquisition, having struck a deal to buy UK-based Authlogics in a move bringing multi factor authentication and password security management capabilities to the business. Shares closed the week at 56p.