Richard says there is more to evaluating directors’ shareholdings than considering the percentage of the company’s shares they own. In lieu of a 5 Strikes update this week, he lists all the shares that have passed the filter in 2026.
I am away, so I haven’t appraised the companies that have published annual reports and passed my minimum quality filter since my update two weeks ago. We will catch up next time.
Instead, I have prepared a table of all the shares that have passed 5 Strikes so far in 2026. These are shares that on cursory inspection that I have deemed worthy of consideration for long-term investment.
First, though. I have made a small modification to my 5 Strikes setup in ShareScope. It helps me evaluate directors shareholdings. It also demonstrates how we can combine data items in tables to make new statistics.
Evaluating director ownership
Most of the 5 Strikes factors I use to determine whether a business is worth considering for long-term investment relate to its financial track record over the last eight years.
While I am considering the 5 Strikes factors, I have a list view on the left hand side of my screen showing all LSE listed shares that pass my minimum quality filter. I move down the list noting Strikes in the company’s financial track record. This is displayed in a custom table on the right side of my screen. The minimum quality filter and the 5 strikes custom table are described in this explainer.
One 5 Strikes factor, though, is not part of a company’s financial track record. It is Directors’ Shareholdings. I prefer the directors of the companies I invest in to have significant holdings. I award a strike when I think the holding is not significant.
Generally speaking directors with significant holdings have a lot to gain if the company does well, and much to lose if it does badly. This is what we mean when we say they are “aligned” with shareholders.
ShareScope has a Director Shareholdings data item that I include in the list view. This tells us the percentage of ordinary shares owned by directors.
Having Directors Shareholdings in the list view means I do not have to leave my 5 Strikes setup to view the Directors Dealing tab (DD), which tells us how many shares each director owns (and other major shareholders).
Maybe you are thinking that a click is a small inconvenience, but it would not involve just one click. I note each strike in a notes field in the list view as I scrutinise the data for each share, so actually I would need to close that notes field, click on the DD tab, then return to my 5 Strikes view and reopen the notes field, which is a pain if I am appraising dozens of shares. It’s much easier to have all the data on screen at the same time.
But what percentage of shares is significant? Sometimes knowing the percentage is not sufficient to make even a cursory judgment. For example, I have just discovered Norman Broadbent*, a long established headhunter that claims to be the first UK headquartered executive search firm.
Norman Broadbent directors own 8% of the shares, which sounds like a lot, but the company only has a market capitalisation of £4m. A quick calculation will tell you, their combined holding is worth about £320,000.
I doubt that aligns them much with shareholders. The two executive directors earned £788,000 in 2025, which added to £164,000 earned by the non-executives gives £952,000. It looks like the directors’ wealth is more dependent on their pay, than how well the shares do over the long term.
Near the other end of the scale we have retailer Next, with a market capitalisation of £15bn. The directors there own just 1.18% of the shares, but the same quick calculation tells us the shares are worth £178m.
Most of those shares belong to Lord Wolfson, the company’s longstanding chief executive. Granted he is very well paid. The total remuneration for the Next board (comprising 5 executives and 6 non-executives) in the year to January 2026 was nearly £23m.
The Next board’s annual remuneration is about an eighth of the value of its shareholdings. To my mind that makes it more aligned with shareholders than Norman Broadbent’s board, where the directors earned more than the value of their shareholdings in a year.
While ShareScope does not include a data item for the value of directors’ shareholdings, by combining the holdings (as a percentage) with market capitalisation we can do the same quick calculation I have done earlier in this article.
There is a wrinkle though. ShareScope multiplies the percentage as a number, so the result displayed is a hundred times too big. Reading the value in the list view, we have to make a mental adjustment, dividing it by 100 (or moving the decimal point two places to the left).
I have included the value of directors’ shareholdings in my 5 Strikes list view to help me interpret executive pay. As you can see it gives a value of £17,757m, but we have to make the mental adjustment to £177.57m or £178m in round numbers:
I did not give Next a strike for holdings. Norman Broadbent got one.
*NB. ShareScope’s directors’ holdings percentage and market capitalisation measures only count ordinary shares, but companies sometimes have other share classes. Norman Broadbent has five classes of shares, but as far as I can see the other four are worthless.
Index to 5/ passes in 2026
It’s impossible to keep up with all the companies publishing annual reports in the spring so I have created this table to remind me to familiarise myself with them over the rest of the year. I have my work cut out.
I have added a link (>) to articles that mention the shares I have already introduced or evaluated. Some of these articles are published on another site, interactive investor.
The table is sorted by number of strikes (0) first, and then subsorted alphabetically. This is generally the order I intend to work through the list.
99 of the 212 shares that pass my minimum quality filter have published annual reports so far this year. Of them, 50 achieved less than 3 strikes:
| Name | TIDM | Prev AR | Strikes | # Strikes | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FOUR | 4imprint | 14/4/26 | ? Holdings | 0 | > |
| CCC | Computacenter | 8/4/26 | 0 | ||
| QTX | Quartix | 25/3/26 | ? ROCE | 0 | |
| PRV | Porvair | 11/3/26 | ? Holdings | 0 | > |
| HWDN | Howden Joinery | 25/2/26 | ? Holdings | 0 | > |
| CER | Cerillion | 12/1/26 | 0 | > | |
| BAG | Barr (AG) | 21/4/26 | ? Acquisitions ? Growth | 1 | |
| SAG | Science | 21/4/26 | ? Growth | 1 | |
| NXT | Next | 16/4/26 | – Debt | 1 | |
| FDM | FDM Group | 10/4/26 | – Growth | 1 | |
| HILS | Hill & Smith | 10/4/26 | – Holdings ? Acquisitions | 1 | |
| IMI | IMI | 31/3/26 | ? Holdings – Debt ? Growth | 1 | |
| CKN | Clarkson | 30/3/26 | ? Growth – ROCE | 1 | |
| RMV | Rightmove | 30/3/26 | – Holdings | 1 | |
| ROR | Rotork | 27/3/26 | – Holdings ? Growth | 1 | |
| ALFA | Alfa Financial Software | 24/3/26 | – Growth | 1 | > |
| GAMA | Gamma Communications | 24/3/26 | ? Acquisitions – Holdings | 1 | |
| INCH | Inchcape | 24/3/26 | – Growth | 1 | |
| MEGP | Me Group International | 23/3/26 | – Growth ? ROCE | 1 | |
| BOWL | Hollywood Bowl | 5/1/26 | – Debt | 1 | > |
| EKF | EKF Diagnostics | 27/4/26 | ? CROCI – Growth ? ROCE | 2 | |
| WINK | M Winkworth | 24/4/26 | – Holdings – Growth | 2 | |
| JDG | Judges Scientific | 22/4/26 | ? Acquisitions – Debt – Growth | 2 | |
| FEVR | Fevertree Drinks | 20/4/26 | – CROCI – Growth | 2 | |
| CAML | Central Asia Metals | 15/4/26 | – Growth ? ROCE | 2 | |
| PAGE | Page | 13/4/26 | – Holdings? CROCI – Debt – Growth – ROCE | 2 | |
| MACF | Macfarlane | 10/4/26 | – Holdings – Debt ? Growth | 2 | > |
| SVS | Savills | 9/4/26 | – Holdings – CROCI ? Growth ? ROCE | 2 | |
| APTD | Aptitude Software | 8/4/26 | – Holdings ? Acquisitions – Growth | 2 | |
| IGG | IG Group | 8/4/26 | – Holdings – Growth | 2 | |
| SPX | Spirax | 8/4/26 | – Holdings – Debt ? Growth | 2 | |
| BBY | Balfour Beatty | 2/4/26 | – Holdings ? CROCI ? Growth – ROCE | 2 | |
| LUCE | Luceco | 25/3/26 | ? Acquisitions – Debt ? Growth ? ROCE | 2 | |
| BA. | BAE Systems | 24/3/26 | ? Holdings ? Acquisitions – Debt ? Growth | 2 | > |
| DOM | Domino’s Pizza | 24/3/26 | – Holdings – Debt ? Growth | 2 | |
| ITRK | Intertek | 20/3/26 | ? Holdings – Debt ? Growth | 2 | |
| JSG | Johnson Service | 19/3/26 | – Holdings – Debt | 2 | |
| HIK | Hikma Pharmaceuticals | 18/3/26 | ? Acquisitions – Debt | 2 | |
| YU. | Yu | 18/3/26 | – CROCI ? ROCE | 2 | |
| BNZL | Bunzl | 17/3/26 | ? Holdings – Debt – Growth | 2 | > |
| CTEC | ConvaTec | 10/3/26 | ? holdings – Debt ? Growth ? ROCE | 2 | > |
| MONY | Mony | 9/3/26 | – Holdings ? Growth | 2 | |
| STEM | SThree | 9/3/26 | – Holdings – Growth | 2 | |
| GSK | GSK | 6/3/26 | ? Holdings – Debt ? Growth | 2 | |
| DATA | GlobalData | 2/3/26 | ? Acquisitions – Debt ? ROCE | 2 | > |
| IHG | InterContinental Hotels | 26/2/26 | ? Holdings – Debt | 2 | |
| REL | RELX | 19/2/26 | ? Holdings – Debt ? Growth | 2 | > |
| RFX | Ramsdens | 15/1/26 | – CROCI ? Growth ? ROCE | 2 | > |
| IHP | IntegraFin | 9/1/26 | – CROCI | 2 | |
| RWS | RWS | 8/1/26 | ? Acquisitions – Growth – ROCE | 2 | > |
| Click here for our 5 Strikes explainer | 29/04/2026 | ||||
Richard Beddard
Contact Richard Beddard by email: richard@beddard.net, web: beddard.net
This article is for educational purposes only. It is not a recommendation to buy or sell shares or other investments. Do your own research before buying or selling any investment or seek professional financial advice.
