The Accent Group Ltd (ASX: AX1) share price has been a strong performer on the All Ordinaries index in 2019.
Since the start of the year the footwear-focused retail group's shares have rallied a massive 41% higher.
Why is the Accent share price rocketing higher in 2019?
This strong share price rally was driven largely by the company's impressive performance in the first half of FY 2019. In February the company reported an 11.2% increase in half year company owned store sales to $389.4 million and a 27.3% lift in net profit after tax to $32.2 million.
This was driven by strong digital sales growth and the company's continued success with its strategy of "no lazy retailing". This strategy aims to remove discounting and focus on profitable sustainable sales.
It resulted in like for like retail sales growth of 1.2% and a gross margin 280 basis points ahead of the same period last year.
Another positive was that management advised that it expects furtherr profit growth in the second half, providing second half EBITDA growth guidance of 10%.
Is it too late to invest?
Whilst I don't believe it is too late to invest, I am concerned by news that the company's non-executive chairman has just offloaded a significant number of shares.
According to a change of director's interests notice, David Gordon sold 4 million shares through an on-market trade on Wednesday. Mr Gordon received $1.58 per share or a total consideration of $6.32 million for the sale. This reduced his holding by over 60% to approximately 2.6 million shares.
Unfortunately, no reason was provided for the share sale, which I suspect is unlikely to go down well with investors today.
Should you invest?
I think it might be best to let the dust settle on this insider selling before considering an investment.
In the meantime, fellow retailers Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL) and Super Retail Group Ltd (ASX: SUL) could be good alternatives.
