Boom lowered but some buy

It looks as if there are a couple of deep-value punters in the Boom Logistics boardroom.

The gentlemen concerned are chairman John Robinson and non-executive director Howard Critchley; they've both bought scrip in the crane operator at all-time-low prices or thereabouts.

Now, value seekers over the past few years have trod a well-worn path to the Boom share register, and the share price has improved 50 per cent on four occasions as investors from time to time decided that the stock looked cheap.

But Boom is a disappointer on the earnings front and as far as free cash flow is concerned, well, look elsewhere.

Brenden Mitchell, the chief, unveiled the bearish tidings last week; earnings before interest and tax were $7 million worse than expected due to resource and construction industry softness. He said it was not possible to accurately predict "the year-end position at this time".

In mid-February, the company's full-year earnings forecast was $39 million.

The response to this news was swift and nasty: the scrip fell from 21¢ to 15.5¢ on heavy volume and the shares have drifted to 11¢, which compares with a last-stated asset backing of 50¢-plus.

Enter Messrs Robinson, Critchley, and Perennial Investment Partners, who bought following the downgrade, while Schroder Investment Management and BT Investment Management both pushed the selling button.

Elsewhere, Simon Madder, the managing director and co-founder of wealth management concern Prime Financial Group, has put his money where his management is.

He bought Hudson Conway's 8 million stake at 10¢ apiece; he's now got 13 per cent.

Elsewhere, selling continued on the carsales.com front. Robin Widdup continued buying Lion Selection shares, while a clutch of Silver Lake Resources directors are now nicely ahead of the game.