Insider: Buying one of this century's best blue chips

Buyers could clean up

Reckitt Benckiser has been one of the stockmarket's standout performers of this century. Time and again the company behind such household names as Dettol, Nurofen and Harpic bleach has weathered downturns and emerged stronger than before.

Revellers waving goodbye to 1999 and hello to the 21st century could have bought Reckitt shares for 580p. They're now worth almost 6,000p following an impressive set of half-year results in July.

Despite the slowdown in global demand, Reckitt is tipped to deliver sector-leading top line growth in 2015. Like-for-like sales rose 5% in the first half, and JP Morgan expects the same for the full-year. With margins expected to improve by around 260 basis points between 2014 and 2017, organic profit growth should also easily beat peers.

"At 22x 16E PE [price/earnings], RB shares do not come cheap, but they trade only marginally above peers despite stronger EPS growth and optionality for higher cash returns (JPM £300m-500m), while management is still on the lookout for M&A," says JP Morgan, which upgrades the shares to 'overweight' with 6,300 price target.

Dr Pam Kirby is banking on further upside. A non-executive director since January, Dr Kirby has just spent £169,000 on 2,919 Reckitt shares at 5,793p each.

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Shop till you drop for these shares

UK shopping centre-owner Capital & Regional just keeps getting better, certainly since the post-crisis recover began in 2009. And directors have been backing the company.

We reported back in May that shares in the real estate investment trust, or REIT, had risen from 23p in 2012, and that non-executive director Louis Norval had begun stake-building. Now the South African property magnate is buying again and his interest is now worth a colossal £115 million, or almost 25% of the company.

This week, Ceenie Trust snapped up 1,000,000 shares at 66p, while MStead Limited acquired almost 2 million shares at 65.5-66p. Norval has a beneficial interest in both companies and now owns almost 173 million shares.

Interim results published last month certainly justify optimism. A 13% increase in net asset value (NAV) to 67p was better than expected, and Numis Securities see "upward pressure on both income and NAV forecasts". Of course, shareholders, including Norval, qualify for dividends, too, and dividend expectations for this year have been increased to 3p a share, giving a prospective yield of 4.6%.

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This article is for information and discussion purposes only and does not form a recommendation to invest or otherwise. The value of an investment may fall. The investments referred to in this article may not be suitable for all investors, and if in doubt, an investor should seek advice from a qualified investment adviser.