What does feel about the “Insiders” Coles trading in Coles (COL)?

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Question asked 27/08/2022

What does feel about the “Insiders” Coles trading in Coles (COL)?

I have been investing for many years and have been able to ride the highs and lows reasonably successfully. Over the years there have been many and obvious signs of insider trading and I have been able to put them aside thinking that "insiders" may be punished. However, as I get older and more grumpy and have entered my retirement phase, I become quite angry when so-called "Mum and Dad" shares like Coles (for example) get shafted by those in the know. If you look at the Coles chart for the last month or so, you can see a nice upward trend. HOWEVER, yesterday (Aug 23) the day BEFORE reporting, it drops over 65 cents. Followed by this morning (Aug 24) AFTER the report is released, it drops another 85 cents. What is going on? I understand there was an across the board drop yesterday but the Coles drop was out of proportion with the rest of the market. Brian

Answer

Hi Brian,

We see no real issue with the price action of Coles (COL) into its result on Wednesday the 24th believing it more a combination of circumstances that led to the stocks fall & general market underperformance:

The market endured a pretty savage sell-off on Tuesday falling 85-points dragging many blue chips lower including COL.
However we believe the reason COL noticeably underperformed the ASX on the day was because Endeavour Group (EDV) was whacked-12.33% after reporting cost pressures, the pubs doing well, the bottle shops more challenging. The read through was a negative one for Coles liquor business.
The fact that its was the day before COL reported we believe was just a coincidence, similarly WOW fell the day before it reported on Thursday following the weak set of numbers from Coles on Wednesday i.e. stocks within a sector do have a knock on effect on others and this week its been like dominos across the supermarket names.

chart

Coles (COL)

LAST UPDATED 26/08/2022 13:45

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