Overnight the US markets fell broadly by 1% as tariff impacted earnings continued to come through in company forecasts. We’re not out of the woods with tariff turmoil just yet and it is important for investors to not become complacent. Sticking to long-term plans is still the best course of action.
- S&P 500 = -0.70%
- Nasdaq = -0.90%
- Aussie dollar up 0.3% to 64.87US cents
- Iron positive 1.2% to $97.70 US a tonne
Respect the hustle
Yesterday I interviewed Cam McIntyre from CAR Group Limited (ASX: CAR) for an episode of the Australian Investors Podcast. It was a great conversation and I came away with a new appreciation for the business.
One of the first things I said to Cam was “I love your jacket”. He was wearing a Webmotors puffer jacket. Webmotors is the Brazilian version of Carsales.com. As we got chatting he decided to take the jacket off and revealed a CAR Group t-shirt. I didn’t ask what socks he was wearing but one can only assume they were Encar branded.
Typically, most of our interviewees are wearing suits. But here is an ASX 50 company with a market cap just shy of $13 billion and the CEO says, got to take the opportunity to get the brand out there when you can. You’ve got to respect the hustle. I tip my Chileautos cap to you.
Platinum loses a mandate
Continuing to keep an eye on struggling fund manager Platinum Asset Management (ASX: PTM) after the announcement of a proposed merger with the unlisted L1 Capital. Yesterday they announced funds under management had fallen from $10.276 billion to $9.647 billion. This was due to outflows of $243 million and market movements.
Not included in that number was the loss of a $958 million mandate. The notice was received on the 5th of May and will be reflected in next months funds under management report.
The stock fell 6%. You have to wonder what the reaction would have been if the L1 deal wasn’t in place.
Follow the money
About once a month I like to look through the directors transactions to see which insiders are buying their own stock (and most importantly) with their own money. There’s a saying, directors sell shares for many reasons (divorce, a new house, a new yacht) but they buy for one.
There’s a few decent services that collate insider transactions out there to check out insider transactions, Market Index and Intelligent Investor are the two I look at.
Here’s a couple that stood out to me today. I’ve not looked further into these but we’ll make a note of them and come back in the future:
Motorcycle Holdings Ltd (ASX: MTO) director, Michael Poynton recently sold $1.9 million worth of shares. The roll up of motorbike retailers has risen 72% over the last twelve months. A little bit of profit taking here? The last significant purchase by Poynton was back in March 2023 where he bought 750,000 shares for $1.53. This sale took place at $2.20.
United Overseas Australia Limited (ASX: UOS) directors bought up a combined total of $16.8 million in shares. This is an obscure one, it’s a dual listed (here and Singapore) Malaysian property group owned predominantly by one family. Dividend reinvestment plan aside, this is the most significant purchase by the two controlling directors for quite a long time. If you’d like to read up on a bit of the history with this one, a good mate of mine, Mickey Mordech, used to cover it for Intelligent Investor and even flew over to Malaysia for an AGM.
If you want to get in touch with me please use the chat in the bottom right, jump across to Rask Invest or find me in the Community.
