Insider: dealing at Aviva and a £250k purchase in the FTSE 250

The most expensive Aviva (LSE:AV.) shares in over a decade have been bought by a non-executive director in dealings worth £50,000.

Deloitte partner Ian Clark, who has been a board member since March 2024, made his investment on Wednesday at a price of 617p. The stock ended the week at 627p, having risen by more than 30% this year and 128% since November 2020.

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On Friday, Morgan Stanley backed the high-yielding insurer to go further after it highlighted a 680p price target and Overweight recommendation.

The support followed the completion of Aviva’s £3.7 billion takeover of Churchill and Privilege general insurer Direct Line.

Chief executive Amanda Blanc said the deal accelerated Aviva’s capital-light growth strategy and put the company “in a very good position to deliver strong returns for shareholders”.

The group has returned £10 billion of capital to shareholders since 2020 after Blanc repositioned Aviva as a diversified capital-light insurer across insurance, wealth and retirement in the markets of the UK, Canada and Ireland.

In a recent Buy note, Bank of America described Aviva as one of its sector top picks and said the addition of Direct Line should lead to 15% earnings per share accretion and as much as £1 billion of capital release.

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A £250,000 high-yielding purchase of Zigup (LSE:ZIG) shares has been made by the chief executive of the vehicle fleet business after it suffered a results-day reverse in value.

Martin Ward, who has been in charge since Zigup was created out of the merger of Northgate and Redde in 2020, bought his shares on Wednesday at prices near to 335p.

That compares with 363p on the eve of the annual results and the unchanged 500p target prices of Deutsche Numis and Barclays subsequent to the presentation.

he FTSE 250-listed company provides businesses, fleet operators and insurers with a range of mobility services from vehicle rental and fleet management to accident management, vehicle repairs, service and maintenance.

A strong performance in Spain lifted vehicle hire revenues by 5.2% in the year to 30 April, but a 15% fall in the contribution from vehicle disposals left underlying profit down 7.6% to £166.9 million. Reported profit dropped 37% to £101.5 million.

The results were better than had been feared earlier this year and included plans for a final dividend of 17.6p a share on 30 September, lifting the full-year total by 2.3% to 26.4p.

Based on Deutsche Numis forecasts for the 2026 financial year, the company trades with a twice-covered dividend yield of 7.3% and a price/earnings (PE) multiple of 7.2 times.

The shares, which were 273p in the aftermath of the US tariffs announcement in April, fell back despite guidance for mid/upper single digit underlying earnings growth in Zigup’s operating divisions this year before taking into account disposal profits.

It added: “We see good opportunities in 2025/26, with robust demand for our mobility solutions across our markets.”

Ward later told analysts that the company had just completed a “year of operational heavy lifting”, which included bringing the UK and Ireland rental and claims services business into a single operating structure.

New technology has also been introduced making it easier for customers to access products and services. This has resulted in high customer retention, a strong pipeline of new business, contract extensions, and a number of new insurance partner wins.

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The coming year should provide investors with a clearer picture of the merged business, given the impact of tailwinds created by the pandemic within weeks of the tie-up’s completion.

Residual values of light commercial vehicles peaked in 2022 before their subsequent unwinding led to a 15% fall in disposal profits to £52.5 million in last week’s results.

The annual figures were also impacted by a cyber incident and £20 million of exceptional items, the bulk of which related to the withdrawal from the personal injury market.

Ward said that vehicle supply has since normalised and that the market headwinds of vehicle residual values and replacement hire lengths have been stable since the autumn.

He added: “Seeing disposal profits move into the rear view mirror might be useful in measuring the quality of the underlying earnings.”

With vehicle supply constraints no longer a factor and following a year of organisational and strategic focus, Barclays said the set-up for 2026 rental profit growth appeared encouraging.

The bank added: “Cross-sell efforts look to be bearing fruit, the business continues to take share in Spain, customer net promoter scores are up, and in the UK new enquiries have reached a five-year high whilst vehicles on hire churn has fallen to a three-year low.”