Director dealings: Man Group's new CEO shows confidence in stock

Ellis, the group's former investment chief who was promoted to the top role at the beginning of September, took delivery of 1.24m shares for free thanks to the share options scheme, and then parted with some cash to buy 500,000 at an average price of 125.71p.

Taking over the tiller when previous Man boss Manny Roman departed to become CEO at investment manager Pimco, Ellis oversaw his first set of quarterly results last week.

Helped by news of a share buyback and an acquisition, these numbers sent the shares surging, with a 6% improvement in funds under management to $80.7bn, with net inflows of $1.3bn supported by demand from institutional investors.

Man also announced an agreement to acquire US and Europe based real asset manager Aalto Invest, which Ellis said should be accretive to earnings per share from 2017 onwards and will be "instrumental" in the development of Man Global Private Markets, the group's new private markets capability.

“In line with our strategy to continue to diversify the firm and our offering for clients, this private markets capability is complementary to our broad offering in liquid strategies.”

Top Director Buys

Man Group (EMG)
Director name: Ellis,Luke
Amount purchased: 500,000 @ 125.71p
Value: £628,558.99

Blackrock World Mining Trust (BRWM)
Director name: Edey,Russell
Amount purchased: 13,000 @ 326.00p
Value: £42,380.00

Old Mutual (OML)
Director name: Nyembezi-Heita,Nonkululeko
Amount purchased: 5,477 @ 200.10p
Value: £10,959.48

Blackrock Throgmorton Trust (THRG)
Director name: Beart,Simon
Amount purchased: 158 @ 330.00p
Value: £521.40

Blackrock Throgmorton Trust (THRG)
Director name: Beart,Simon
Amount purchased: 147 @ 330.00p
Value: £485.10

Standard Life (SL.)
Director name: Matthews,Paul
Amount purchased: 66 @ 343.00p
Value: £226.38

Blackrock Throgmorton Trust (THRG)
Director name: Latymer,Lord
Amount purchased: 46 @ 330.00p
Value: £151.80

Standard Life (SL.)
Director name: Savage,Luke
Amount purchased: 43 @ 343.00p
Value: £147.49

Top Director Sells

Gw Pharmaceuticals (GWP)
Director name: Tovey,Christopher John
Amount sold: 266,556 @ $10.06
Value: $2,260,235.96

Gw Pharmaceuticals (GWP)
Director name: Guy,Geoffrey
Amount sold: 206,100 @ 843.00p
Value: £1,737,423.06

Gw Pharmaceuticals (GWP)
Director name: Guy,Geoffrey
Amount sold: 125,000 @ 809.00p
Value: £1,011,250.02

Gw Pharmaceuticals (GWP)
Director name: Guy,Geoffrey
Amount sold: 68,900 @ 824.00p
Value: £567,735.98

Purplebricks Group (PURP)
Director name: Kavanagh,David
Amount sold: 69,500 @ 132.23p
Value: £91,899.85

Gw Pharmaceuticals (GWP)
Director name: Gangolli,Julian
Amount sold: 3,612 @ $10.06
Value: $30,627.61

Gw Pharmaceuticals (GWP)
Director name: Wright,Stephen
Amount sold: 1,556 @ 810.00p
Value: £12,603.60