Insider: FTSE 250 directors lock in 7% yield

Chesnara bosses have made 7% yielding investments worth £100,000 after the FTSE 250-listed life and pensions consolidator extended its run of dividend growth to a 22nd year.

The purchases by chief executive Steve Murray and finance boss Tom Howard took place at prices of around 342p, which compares with the 330p seen prior to last week’s interim results and the 176p in last summer’s rights issue to fund the acquisition of HSBC Life.

Chesnara (LSE:CSN) ended the week in record territory near 363p as City firm Berenberg issued a new price target of 437p and counterparts at Panmure Liberum valued the shares at 400p.

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The HSBC Life deal, which was completed in January, added over 450,000 policies and £5 billion of assets under administration. It is also expected to contribute over £800 million of cash generation across the lifetime of the book of business.

Chesnara has grown through 15 acquisitions, having started in 2004 as a life and pensions book demerged from the estate agency group Countrywide. It joined the FTSE 250 in August 2025 and now administers 1.3 million policies in the UK, Netherlands and Sweden.

The addition of HSBC Life gave a one-off boost to the group’s dividend trajectory after Chesnara made uplifts of 6% to May’s full-year dividend payment and to last week’s interim award, compared with the recent historic track record of 3% a year growth.

Since listing in 2004, the group has increased its total dividend by 119% to 22.5p after a run of unbroken growth that Panmure Liberum said was unparalleled in UK and European insurance.

The broker added that a combination of 7% yield plus growth translated to a powerful total shareholder return, having compounded by more than eight times in the past 20 years.

Panmure said an already “rock-solid” dividend profile had been further secured by HSBC Life and by the acquisition of Scottish Widows Europe, which is expected to complete later this year and add 1.7 billion euros of assets and approximately 46,000 policies.

The City firm said: “There is a clear positive inflection the stock will enjoy in free cash flow over our forecast period.

“In addition, there remains plenty of firepower to self-fund another meaningful deal. With this profile, the stock should appeal to both income and growth investors.”

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Berenberg said its new estimates on the back of interim results pointed to £280 million of M&A firepower, reflecting £130 million of excess cash and £150 million debt headroom.

And given the success of the HSBC Life deal, which was part-funded through a £140 million rights issue, it believes Chesnara should receive strong demand for any further equity raise it might consider for M&A.

The bank said: “We raise our price target from 404p to 437p as we believe that Chesnara may raise more equity for M&A through a rights issue, thereby rewarding investors with higher dividend per share growth of 6% versus its 3% per annum norm.”

Last week’s half-year results showed assets under administration jumped by 38% to £21 billion and operating capital generation by 79% to £96 million. An interim dividend of 8.16p is due to be paid on 16 October, with an ex-dividend date of Thursday 3 September.

The £50,000 of post-results dealings by Murray, who has been CEO since October 2021, have taken his shareholding interest to a current value of £2.4 million. Howard, who joined from Aviva Investors in April 2024, now has £845,000 after his £50,000 move.

The cheapest Hunting (LSE:HTG) shares since January have been bought by a second director after the energy-focused precision engineer’s valuation slumped on a Middle East contract setback.

The £27,500 of dealings by non-executive Paula Harris took place on Wednesday at 392p, which compares with 473.5p prior to the FTSE 250-listed company’s interim results on 21 August.

Hunting lifted its dividend by 12.9% to seven US cents a share but the robust half-year performance was clouded by the disclosure that Middle East volatility had caused Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) to re-tender a major contract for oil country tubular goods.

An accelerated tender process is expected to be re-issued during the current quarter, with the result announced within a month of issuance.

Hunting said any new contracts will not be recognised until 2027 but that its deep relationship with KOC and technical expertise left it well placed to win further orders.

The KOC tender process delay will have an impact of about $10 million (£7.4 million) on 2026 earnings, resulting in a new guidance range of $138-$141 million. The 2025 figure was £135.7 million.

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In North America, Hunting pointed out that activity levels are expected to increase steadily as new data centres and AI-driven hyper-scalers accelerate demand for energy and power. Across South America, onshore and offshore activity is projected to continue growing.

Hunting’s Dubai and Saudi Arabia facilities were closed for a few days in the early part of the Iran conflict, but the overall impact on trading results has been immaterial.

It added: “The directors expect activity in the Middle East to rapidly recover once the conflict is resolved and regional stability returns, enabling production to be restored and suspended projects to be resumed.”

Since 2023, Hunting has transformed its portfolio from being reliant on US onshore, unconventional drilling activity to a more balanced profile across sub-segments. It is also driving its strategy into non-oil and gas sectors such as power generation and aviation.

By March 2028, the company expects it will have returned $100 million to shareholders through two buyback programmes. Directors also project that dividend distributions will continue to rise at 13% per annum through to the end of the decade.

The shares traded on Friday at 415p, which compares with the 550p target of Berenberg and the 414.5p dealings of senior independent director Keith Lough immediately following the results.