When a director of an ASX 200 share buys up stock in their own company, investors usually sit up and take notice. After all, it's rarely a bad sign to see the managers of a company put their money where their mouth is and put extra skin in the game.
Directors are usually paid handsomely to look after a company's fortunes. So when said directors buy up additional shares in said company, it aligns their financial fortunes more closely to those of other investors. Which said other investors usually, and understandably, appreciate.
That's exactly what seems to be going on with one ASX 200 share this week: Seven Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: SVW).
Seven Group is the company headed by the famous Stokes family. Not to be mistaken with the media company Seven West Media Ltd (ASX: SWM), Seven Group is a diversified ASX 200 investment company. It has interests ranging from oil and gas, equipment hire and media through its stake in Seven West.
Last week, we briefly covered Seven Group's latest earnings report. This covered the first half of FY2023. Investors seemed very impressed with Seven's 16% jump in revenues that were reported. Not to mention the 17% increase in net profits and an 18% jump in earnings per share (EPS). Since this report became public, Seven Group shares have risen by a healthy 3.3% or so.
But today, the Seven Group share price has had a red day. The shares have slid by 1.4% down to $24.05 a share.
But this is despite news of some insider buying going on.
ASX 200 director loads the boat on Seven shares
Last Thursday, Seven Group put out an ASX notice that confirmed a large, post-earnings director transaction.
The director in question is Rachel Argaman OAM. The ASX notice reveals that Argaman more than doubled her stake in Seven Group last Thursday, picking up 6,500 shares in an on-market trade. These shares were acquired for an average price of $24.15 each. That's slightly below what the company is trading for today.
This indicates the transaction set Argaman back around $157,000. Until Thursday, Argaman owned 6,000 Seven shares. So she has now more than doubled her stake to 12,500 shares. The shares are held indirectly, in a family trust.
So the fact that these shares were picked up after Seven had reported its earnings and its share price had risen is arguably a strong vote of confidence in Seven Group and its future from Argaman. No doubt investors will be stoked with this news.
The Seven Group share price has had a remarkably strong start to 2023. It has recorded a year-to-date gain of 14.3% at today's pricing. The company is also up by around 7.5% over the past 12 months, and up almost 30% over the past five years:
At the current Seven Group share price, this ASX 200 share has a market capitalisation of $8.74 billion, with a dividend yield of 1.91%.
