Markets generally seem to be in an optimistic mood at the moment, and the same can be said for company directors with many snapping up more shares in their respective companies.
One of the most notable deals over the past week involves Andre Lacroix, the chief executive of FTSE 100 product tester Intertek (ITRK), who bought 10,000 shares at £53.67 each in a deal worth £536,700 in total.
Intertek shares have fallen around 14% from their all-time highs of over £64 at the start of October as the market moves away from quality growth stocks and into cheaper value stocks.
Earlier this month, Intertek reported a drop in full-year profit and revenue but said earnings performance was ahead of expectations following a strong recovery in the second half.
Adjusted operating profit for 2020 fell 18.4% to £427.7 million, with revenues down 8.2% to £2.7 billion, while adjusted pre-tax profit declined 19% to £392.8 million.
OTHER NOTABLE BUYS
It’s been a week where there have been more significant buys than sells among director dealings, and one interesting transaction involves Hal Barron, chief scientific officer at pharmaceutical GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
Barron has bought more of the firm’s American Depositary Shares, snapping up 46,414 shares at a price of $17.77 each in a deal worth $824,777. Barron has made several purchases of GSK shares since the start of November.
Another pharmaceutical director buying in has been Ray Stafford, chairman of AIM-listed biotech firm Amryt Pharma (AMYT:AIM), who bought 300,100 shares at £2 each in a deal worth £600,200.
Charles Cotton, a non-executive director at video games developer Frontier Developments (FDEV:AIM), bought a total of 17,165 shares in two transactions at prices of £26.14 and £25.65 each in deals worth a combined £445,000.
MICROCAP MD’S WIFE SELLS SHARES TO REPAY LOAN AND FUND LEGAL ACTION
The award for one of the strangest stock exchange announcements goes to £3 million market cap broadband reseller Toople (TOOP), which announced that Juli Carter, wife of John Carter who is managing director of Toople’s trading subsidiary Direct Market Services Limited , sold 1.05 million shares at a price of 0.06p each to repay a loan and fund legal action.
Toople said most of net proceeds from Carter’s sale will be used to repay £462,000 owed to DMSL at the time that DMSL was acquired by Toople in February 2020.
As a result, Toople said its balance sheet has been ‘materially further enhanced’, which together with lower cash burn provides a ‘working capital platform to enable the company to progress towards profitability.’
The balance of the proceeds from the sale are intended to be used by John Carter to fund a High Court action against a third party. Toople stressed the dispute doesn’t involve the company and that there is no potential liability to the company.
For a full list of the week’s most significant trades, click here.
