Insider: wave of selling among FTSE 100 directors

FTSE 100 directors have been busy hitting the sell button in recent days following a bunch of encouraging quarterly results. And it’s not surprising given how well blue-chip stocks have performed.

Since April’s tariff crash, the FTSE 100 is up 26%, taking returns in 2025 to almost 19%. Nearly one-fifth of the index is up 50% or more in seven months and a handful of stocks have doubled this year. Incredibly, a fifth of all FTSE 100 shares have hit a record high in the past couple of months.

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One of them is Next (LSE:NXT), which this week traded as high as £146 compared with less than £100 in March. The latest leg of the record rally followed Wednesday’s well-received third-quarter results.

Numbers from the high street and online fashion retailer were so good, including 10.5% growth in Q3 full-price sales year-on-year, it upgraded forecasts for annual pre-tax profit from £1.105 billion to £1.135 billion. Analysts at Morgan Stanley think there could be more surprises, with Next’s conservatism around the fourth quarter “leading to further scope for upgrades come January”.

“More importantly, we expect the ongoing momentum in Next’s international business to continue to drive stronger growth for Next multi-year, hence underpinning ongoing upwards earnings revisions and valuation.”

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A day after the figures, two bosses bagged more than £7.6 million from the sale of Next shares. Merchandise and Operations director Richard Papp flogged 2,518 shares at £140.44 each, banking more than £353,000. But it was chief executive Lord Simon Wolfson that took home the lion’s share after selling 50,000 shares at £145.20 to bag more than £7.2 million. According to ShareScope, he still owns about 983,00 shares currently worth £140 million.

Banking profits

Bank stocks have done very well recently. The UK sector is up 43% so far this year, behind only Aerospace & Defence and Precious Metals, and trading at prices not seen since the financial crisis was in full swing in September 2008.

Barclays (LSE:BARC) shares have tripled in value over the past two years, so no wonder the boost provided by Q3 results convinced a couple of directors to cash in. HR director Tristram Roberts sold 669,511 shares at 404.6p each in a deal worth £2.7 million, while Global Co-Head of Investment Banking Taylor Wright raised £36,000 from the sale of shares at 396p.

We also heard this week about disposals made straight after the quarterly results announcement. About £3.7 million was raised by three directors selling 961,726 shares between them.

Global Co-Head of Investment Banking at Barclays Investment Bank Cathal Deasy, Head of Global Markets Adeel Khan and Chief Executive of Barclays Private Bank and Wealth Management Sasha Wiggins were the lucky sellers.

Barclays had kicked off the UK bank sector quarterly reporting season with an increase in overall income of 8% to £3.1 billion, with general market volatility boosting income at the trading unit, where income rose by 6% across fixed income and equities.

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HSBC Holdings (LSE:HSBA) also has plenty going for it, clearly, with the City confident it has everything in place to achieve ambitious growth plans. Strip out the latest $1.1 billion provision for a lawsuit relating to Bernie Madoff, and pre-tax profit rose 3% during the quarter. The lender also upgraded forecasts for net interest income to $43 billion from a previous $42 billion.

As a post-results share price recovery from the £10 region entered a second day, HSBC’s chief information officer made a move. Stuart Riley sold 22,404 shares in the Asia-focused bank at £10.69, trousering almost £240,000.

More big paydays

Elsewhere, GSK (LSE:GSK) chiefs are sitting pretty after exploiting a rally toa 17-month high near the top of the trading range over the past 14 years. It followed a positive response to GSK’s third-quarter results that sent the drug major’s share price close to 1,760p on results day. In April, the shares traded as low as 1,242p and 1,455p a month ago.

CEO of ViiV Healthcare and President, Global Health Deborah Waterhouse received over £2 million when she got rid of 120,000 GSK shares at more than £16.88 each, while President of Global Supply Chain Regis Simard netted £623,000 when he sold 37,000 shares at just under £16.84 apiece.

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And over at Unilever (LSE:ULVR), Group President, Foods Heiko Schipper is €223,212 (£196,683) richer after deciding to offload 4,173 shares on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange at over €53.48 each.

Shares in the consumer goods giant have moved largely sideways since recording a multi-year high in September 2024, given a challenging consumer and geopolitical environment. And while last week’s third-quarter results didn’t shoot the lights out, they were good enough to “keep us on track to deliver within our guidance ranges”.