A vote of confidence from a non-executive director tends to please investors; Vitec (VTC) has received three. Caroline Thomson, Mark Rollins and Christopher Humphrey have shelled out a combined £108,000 on the camera equipment group's shares since the start of August.
Mr Rollins and Mr Humphrey roughly doubled their stakes to 10,000 shares each, or 2.2 per cent of the total. Ms Thompson, who was appointed to the board in November 2015, made her first investment. The purchases follow a mixed first-half showing from Vitec: strong demand drove underlying sales upward in both the broadcast and photography divisions, but operating profits fell in the former due to weaker trading in Europe, lower sales of large camera supports and a challenging comparative period for the Haigh-Farr antennas business.
Broker Investec expects adjusted pre-tax profits of £35.2m this calendar year, giving EPS of 55.3p, up from £31.5m and 49.2p in 2015.
| Buys | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
| Atlantis Japan Growth Fund | Philip Ehrmann | 10 Aug 16 | 20,000 | 150 | 30,000 | 20,000 | 0.050 |
| Aviva | Michael Mire | 04 Aug 16 | 7,500 | 405.08 | 30,381 | 15,000 | 0.000 |
| Aviva | Adrian Montague (ch) | 04 Aug 16 | 7,000 | 406.85 | 28,480 | 33,082 | 0.001 |
| Devro | Gerard Hoetmer (ch) | 05 Aug 16 | 5,000 | 247 | 12,350 | 65,000 | 0.039 |
| Devro | Gerard Hoetmer (ch) | 05 Aug 16 | 5,000 | 248 | 12,400 | 70,000 | 0.042 |
| Devro | Gerard Hoetmer (ch) | 05 Aug 16 | 5,000 | 250 | 12,500 | 75,000 | 0.045 |
| Dialight | Martin Rapp | 04 Aug 16 | 4,976 | 585 | 29,110 | 13,500 | 0.042 |
| Dialight | Martin Rapp | 04 Aug 16 | 7,024 | 586.8 | 41,217 | 8,524 | 0.026 |
| Dunelm | Keith Down (cfo) | 05 Aug 16 | 5,629 | 865 | 48,691 | 14,140 | 0.007 |
| Elegant Hotels♥ | David Adams | 08 Aug 16 | 6,000 | 63.5 | 3,810 | 16,000 | 0.018 |
| Elegant Hotels | Richard Jones (cfo) | 05 Aug 16 | 40,000 | 63 | 25,200 | 40,000 | 0.045 |
| French Connection | Christos Angelides | 08 Aug 16 | 20,000 | 40 | 8,000 | 120,000 | 0.125 |
| Hutchison China Meditech♥ | Christopher Nash | 04 Aug 16 | 3,120 | 1900 | 59,280 | 39,554 | 0.065 |
| Invesco Income Growth Trust | Mark Dampier | 05 Aug 16 | 8,752 | 284.125 | 24,867 | 24,820 | 0.042 |
| Jersey Electricity | Martin Magee (fd) | 05 Aug 16 | 1,516 | 420 | 6,367 | 10,600 | 0.091 |
| Ladbrokes | John Kelly (ch) | 10 Aug 16 | 19,400 | 152.8 | 29,643 | 77,441 | 0.008 |
| Laird | Kjersti Wiklund | 04 Aug 16 | 400 | 316.5 | 1,266 | 10,400 | 0.004 |
| Laird | Kjersti Wiklund | 05 Aug 16 | 2,600 | 323.9 | 8,421 | 13,000 | 0.005 |
| MS International | Michael Bell (ch) | 08 Aug 16 | 20,000 | 150 | 30,000 | 4,905,173 | 29.720 |
| Matchtech | Brian Wilkinson (ceo) | 10 Aug 16 | 47,722 | 357 | 170,368 | 92,722 | 0.299 |
| Premier Foods | Gavin Darby (ceo) | 05 Aug 16 | 662,058 | 51.3634 | 340,055 | 4,815,584 | 0.582 |
| Rolls-Royce Holdings | Ian Davis (ch) | 08 Aug 16 | 259 | 763.5 | 1,977 | 40,970 | 0.002 |
| Rolls-Royce Holdings | Ruth Cairnie | 08 Aug 16 | 254 | 763.5 | 1,939 | 9,984 | 0.001 |
| Rolls-Royce Holdings | Frank Chapman | 08 Aug 16 | 518 | 763.5 | 3,955 | 19,931 | 0.001 |
| Royal Bank of Scotland (The)♥ | Sheila Noakes | 08 Aug 16 | 20,000 | 180.3 | 36,060 | 41,000 | 0.000 |
| SRT Marine Systems | Andrew Lapping | 09 Aug 16 | 20,000 | 48.4 | 9,680 | 1,238,080 | 0.970 |
| Sainsbury (J) | Matthew Brittin | 05 Aug 16 | 13,090 | 228 | 29,845 | 14,090 | 0.001 |
| Schroder Oriental Income Fund | Peter Rigg | 09 Aug 16 | 11,000 | 227.3512 | 25,009 | 23,142 | 0.010 |
| Sound Energy♥ | Stephen Whyte (ch) | 08 Aug 16 | 24,171 | 62 | 14,986 | 165,957 | 0.031 |
| Spirax-Sarco Engineering♥ | James Pike | 10 Aug 16 | 1,133 | 4413 | 49,999 | 2,820 | 0.004 |
| Tertiary Minerals* | Donald McAlister | 09 Aug 16 | 98,937 | 1.375 | 1,360 | 453,894 | 0.170 |
| U and I | Richard Upton | 10 Aug 16 | 46,012 | 161.5 | 74,309 | 2,990,574 | 2.390 |
| United Utilities | Alison Goligher | 04 Aug 16 | 3,000 | 995.4497 | 29,863 | 3,000 | 0.000 |
| Verona Pharma | Jan-Anders Karlsson (ceo) | 09 Aug 16 | 600,000 | 3.249 | 19,494 | 3,470,000 | 0.135 |
| Vitec | Caroline Thomson | 09 Aug 16 | 8,407 | 590 | 49,601 | 8,407 | 0.019 |
| Vitec | Christopher Humphrey | 04 Aug 16 | 5,000 | 570 | 28,500 | 10,000 | 0.022 |
| Vitec | Mark Rollins | 09 Aug 16 | 5,100 | 590 | 30,090 | 10,000 | 0.022 |
| Zegona Communications | Murray Scott | 05 Aug 16 | 20,000 | 110.5 | 22,100 | 20,000 | 0.010 |
| Zegona Communications | Eamonn O'Hare (ch & ceo) | 05 Aug 16 | 185,001 | 109 | 201,651 | 1,960,000 | 1.000 |
| Zegona Communications | Robert Samuelson | 05 Aug 16 | 9,000 | 110.44 | 9,940 | 789,002 | 0.402 |
| Sells | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
| Law Debenture Corp (The) | Caroline Banszky | 04 Aug 16 | 10,000 | 488 | 48,800 | 264,420 | 0.223 |
| Law Debenture Corp (The) | Caroline Banszky | 08 Aug 16 | 10,000 | 489.17 | 48,917 | 194,420 | 0.164 |
| Law Debenture Corp (The) | Caroline Banszky | 08 Aug 16 | 20,000 | 490.46 | 98,092 | 244,420 | 0.207 |
| Law Debenture Corp (The) | Caroline Banszky | 08 Aug 16 | 40,000 | 490.16 | 196,064 | 204,420 | 0.173 |
| MS International | David Pyle | 08 Aug 16 | 20,000 | 150 | 30,000 | 1,770,359 | 10.726 |
| *placing/tender/open offer ♥ spouse/connected party | |||||||
