Asos finance chief invests more than £20,000 as bigger losses spark sales

Asos’s chief financial officer bought more than £20,000 worth of the company’s shares on Tuesday as its price plummeted.

Stock market filings show that Dave Murray, who joined the company in April after previously holding senior roles at Amazon and Sainsbury’s, bought 5,800 Asos shares at around £3.46 each, which reflects a total investment of approximately £20,068.

asos shares They fell 7.8 percent at market close yesterday as investors reacted to mounting losses.

They continued their decline on Wednesday, falling 1.4 per cent to 346.6p.

Directors of publicly traded companies are required to disclose their company’s personal dealings, and insider dealings of this type are considered a barometer of a company’s prospects.

This is Murray’s first purchase of Asos shares, while separate documents suggest he is the first insider to buy shares since non-executive director William Barker in early May.

Camelot Capital Partners, Barker’s California-based investment firm, owns 17,613,381 shares in Asos.

Asos shares are down around 11 per cent since the start of the year to 346.4p, and are 94 per cent below their peak in April 2021, when lockdown conditions weighed on sales.

The fast fashion retailer has been struggling to recover for two years after a post-Covid drop in demand led to weaker sales and mountains of overstock.

The emergence of Chinese fast fashion giant Shein has not helped matters.

Stockopedia data suggests analysts are generally neutral on Asos’ prospects, but brokers seem to think Asos shares remain undervalued.

UBS maintains a 12-month price target of 440p, around 27 per cent above its current value, while analysts at Peel Hunt are more conservative with a price target of 375p.

Peel Hunt said on Tuesday: “We expect the share price to be linked to operational KPIs, namely frequency, assets and ultimately revenue growth.”

“It’s reassuring to note that management has no intention of returning to the discount-based performance marketing proposition of the past, and that Black Friday is no longer seen as the huge acquisition tool it was.”