Insider: FTSE 100 chief nets millions from share sale

Last week’s first-quarter results from high street bellwether Next (LSE:NXT) smashed City expectations. The numbers were so good that investors chased the share price to a record high well above £125.

Full price sales grew 11.4% during the 13 weeks to 26 April, well ahead of the 8-9% pencilled in by analysts. Next itself had been expecting only 6.5%, and said the extra growth was worth £55 million.

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Bosses admitted that the warmer weather had played a major part in the outperformance, driving sales of summer clothing. It means there’s a risk that some of these sales would have been made in the second quarter anyway when the weather is typically better.

The implication is that there won’t be the benefit in the next few months, which is why Next is not increasing sales forecasts for the next quarter and full year. However, the extra £55 million will drop through to a pre-tax profit boost of £14 million, which means the annual figure is likely to increase to £1,080 million.

But the dramatic increase in share price was an opportunity for Next chief executive Lord Wolfson to trim his stake in the retail giant. Once the results were published, he sold 100,000 Next shares at £123.62 each, raising £12.36 million.

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This is the largest director trade in some time, but certainly not the only one. At the end of March, a group of directors sold over 57,500 Next shares at just under £110 each, raising more than £6.3 million. It could well be that these sales are share awards handed out under the company’s long term incentive plan.

Who could blame management for locking in significant gains? Next shares have had a terrific run, surging 180% since autumn of 2022 and adding 25% this year alone.

Source: TradingView. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.

Standard Chartered

There was also selling at Asia-focused bank Standard Chartered (LSE:STAN) following a pop higher in reaction to recent first-quarter results. The share price briefly recovered pre-tariff crash prices having already bounced back from recent lows under 900p, and that proved good enough for one lucky director.

Just a few days after the results, Darrell Ryman took the opportunity to offload 13,624 shares at £10.653, bagging the interim chief operating officer just over £145,000.

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Hong Kong-based Ryman, who joined Standard as chief technology officer for Asia in 2023, took the temporary COO job last September.

Quarterly revenue exceeded market expectations and guidance remains intact, according to City analysts. Morgan Stanley kept its price target at 1,128p.

Source: TradingView. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.