Despite the ongoing struggle for WH Smith (SMWH) on the British high street, it seems chairman Henry Staunton is confident the group's travel division will drive future earnings growth this year. Mr Staunton topped up his existing stake by 20,000 shares this week to the tune of nearly £320,000. Following the transaction Mr Staunton owns 30,000 shares or 0.026 per cent of the group.
IC TIP:
Hold
at
1,594p
In a third-quarter update WH Smith reported total sales up 1 per cent and flat like-for-like revenues at the group level. But sales from the travel division shot up 8 per cent, with 4 per cent like-for-like growth, largely the result of last summer's roll-out of the Food to Go programme.
Like-for-like sales fell 4 per cent on the high street, but margins are on the rise as management continues to aggressively cut costs.
| Buys | |||||||
| Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
| Asian Citrus Holdings ♥ | Ng Ong Nee (ce) | 13 Jul 15 | 179,252,394 | 9.276 | 16,627,997 | 179,252,394 | 14.344 |
| Asian Total Return Investment Co | Christopher Keljik | 10 Jul 15 | 1,010 | 196.75 | 1,987 | 92,861 | 0.127 |
| Aukett Swanke ♣ | Anthony Simmonds (ch) | 15 Jul 15 | 500,000 | 7.5 | 37,500 | 1,000,000 | 0.605 |
| BACIT | Martin Thomas | 15 Jul 15 | 38,229 | 130.788 | 49,999 | 190,024 | 0.050 |
| Chrysalis VCT | Dr. Martin Knight | 14 Jul 15 | 22,000 | 61 | 13,420 | 267,232 | 0.893 |
| Cyan Holdings | Simon Smith (cfo) | 09 Jul 15 | 27,500,000 | 0.189 | 51,975 | 107,266,588 | 1.581 |
| Cyan Holdings | John Cronin (ch) | 09 Jul 15 | 54,500,000 | 0.183 | 99,572 | 159,742,048 | 2.355 |
| Diamondcorp * | Euan Worthington (ch) | 09 Jul 15 | 377,766 | 10 | 37,777 | 1,977,766 | 0.526 |
| Diamondcorp * | Jonathan Willis-Richards | 09 Jul 15 | 16,563 | 10 | 1,656 | 2,383,229 | 0.634 |
| Diamondcorp * | Paul Loudon (ce) | 09 Jul 15 | 259,552 | 10 | 25,955 | 6,147,604 | 1.635 |
| Diamondcorp * | Nicholas Allen | 09 Jul 15 | 16,610 | 10 | 1,661 | 298,976 | 0.079 |
| FastJet ♥ | Bryan Collings | 15 Jul 15 | 100,000 | 118 | 118,000 | 11,087,504 | 16.692 |
| FastJet ♥ | Bryan Collings | 15 Jul 15 | 156,452 | 101 | 158,017 | 11,243,956 | 16.928 |
| Greene King | Rob Rowley | 13 Jul 15 | 3,000 | 863.88 | 25,917 | 3,000 | 0.001 |
| Howden Joinery | Mark Robson (cfo) | 14 Jul 15 | 6,816 | 520 | 35,443 | 1,853,417 | 0.285 |
| Howden Joinery ♥ | Mark Robson (cfo) | 14 Jul 15 | 16,147 | 520 | 83,964 | 1,869,564 | 0.287 |
| iEnergizer ♥ | Anil Aggarwal | 13 Jul 15 | 15,120,000 | 14 | 2,116,800 | 135,196,144 | 80.412 |
| International Biotechnology Trust | Caroline Gulliver | 14 Jul 15 | 2,500 | 569.01 | 14,225 | 2,500 | 0.006 |
| John Laing Environmental Assets * . | Christopher Legge | 15 Jul 15 | 4,896 | 101 | 4,945 | 29,896 | 0.013 |
| John Laing Environmental Assets * . | Peter Neville | 15 Jul 15 | 4,896 | 101 | 4,945 | 29,896 | 0.013 |
| John Laing Environmental Assets * . | Richard Ramsay | 15 Jul 15 | 8,813 | 101 | 8,901 | 53,813 | 0.024 |
| John Laing Environmental Assets * . | Richard Morse (ch) | 15 Jul 15 | 9,792 | 101 | 9,890 | 59,792 | 0.027 |
| John Laing Environmental Assets * . | Denise Mileham | 15 Jul 15 | 8,160 | 101 | 8,242 | 28,160 | 0.013 |
| K&C REIT | Timothy Oakley | 15 Jul 15 | 100,000 | 10 | 10,000 | 350,000 | 0.799 |
| Kainos | Andy Malpass | 15 Jul 15 | 22,590 | 181.76 | 41,060 | 22,590 | 0.019 |
| McKay Securities | NJ Shepherd | 15 Jul 15 | 6,925 | 252.5 | 17,486 | 6,925 | 0.007 |
| North Atlantic Smaller Companies | The Hon Peregrine Moncreiffe (ch) | 13 Jul 15 | 6,000 | 2,008 | 120,480 | 399,130 | 2.745 |
| Octopus Titan VCT | MJ Cooper | 14 Jul 15 | 51,981 | 103.4 | 53,748 | 395,612 | 0.176 |
| Red Rock Resources * | Andrew Bell (ch) | 14 Jul 15 | 55,263,157 | 0.048 | 26,250 | 63,042,317 | 1.122 |
| Red Rock Resources * | Michael Nott | 14 Jul 15 | 21,052,632 | 0.048 | 10,000 | 21,052,632 | 0.375 |
| Sainsbury (J) | Mary Harris | 10 Jul 15 | 404 | 258.48 | 1,044 | 13,252 | 0.001 |
| Sanderson | David Gutteridge | 15 Jul 15 | 45,000 | 66 | 29,700 | 545,000 | 0.998 |
| Tate & Lyle † | William Camp | 10 Jul 15 | 2,000 | 522.96 | 10,459 | 6,800 | 0.001 |
| Thalassa Holdings | Duncan Soukup (ch) | 09 Jul 15 | 50,000 | 51 | 25,500 | 3,487,571 | 14.138 |
| Utilico Investments | G Cole | 13 Jul 15 | 6,286 | 118.5 | 7,449 | 19,164 | 0.020 |
| Utilico Investments | PI Burrows | 13 Jul 15 | 6,286 | 118.5 | 7,449 | 82,742 | 0.085 |
| WH Smith ♥ | Henry Staunton (ch) | 13 Jul 15 | 20,000 | 1,598.28 | 319,656 | 30,000 | 0.026 |
| Witan Investment Trust ♥ | A Watson | 10 Jul 15 | 5,056 | 796.93 | 40,293 | 30,056 | 0.015 |
| Young & Co's Brewery | Trish Corzine | 09 Jul 15 | 1,000 | 1,230 | 12,300 | 1,000 | 0.003 |
| Sells | |||||||
| Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
| 7digital | Ben Drury | 14 Jul 15 | 750,000 | 14.925 | 111,938 | 12,038,631 | 11.138 |
| Asian Citrus Holdings ♥ | Tong Hung Wai | 13 Jul 15 | 179,252,394 | 9.276 | 16,627,997 | 62,612,973 | 5.010 |
| Aukett Swanke ♣ | Andrew Murdoch | 15 Jul 15 | 500,000 | 7.5 | 37,500 | 12,978,486 | 7.856 |
| Bilby * | Darren Dunnett | 14 Jul 15 | 250,000 | 80 | 200,000 | 2,250,000 | 6.570 |
| Bilby * | David Ellingham (fd) | 14 Jul 15 | 250,000 | 80 | 200,000 | 2,250,000 | 6.570 |
| Bilby * | Philip Copolo | 14 Jul 15 | 750,000 | 80 | 600,000 | 14,476,896 | 42.271 |
| Connect | Nicholas Gresham (cfo) | 10 Jul 15 | 135,475 | 148 | 200,503 | 148,084 | 0.061 |
| Crawshaw | Kevin Boyd | 13 Jul 15 | 600,000 | 58 | 348,000 | 2,716,311 | 3.446 |
| Crawshaw | Lynda Sherratt (fd) | 13 Jul 15 | 300,000 | 58 | 174,000 | 970,000 | 1.231 |
| Crawshaw | Mark Naughton-Rumbo | 13 Jul 15 | 50,000 | 58 | 29,000 | 54,456 | 0.069 |
| Cropper (James) ♥ | Isabelle M Maddock (fd) | 13 Jul 15 | 800 | 501.5 | 4,012 | 10,219 | 0.111 |
| FastJet ♥ | Bryan Collings | 15 Jul 15 | 100,000 | 118 | 118,000 | 10,987,504 | 16.542 |
| FastJet ♥ | Bryan Collings | 15 Jul 15 | 82,677 | 96.26 | 79,585 | 11,161,279 | 16.804 |
| FastJet ♥ | Bryan Collings | 15 Jul 15 | 115,000 | 93 | 106,950 | 11,046,279 | 16.630 |
| Halfords | Andrew Findlay (fd) | 15 Jul 15 | 35,709 | 540.6 | 193,043 | 0 | 0.000 |
| NCC | Atul Patel (fd) | 14 Jul 15 | 10,845 | 218.8 | 23,729 | 95,713 | 0.042 |
| NCC | Robert Cotton (ce) | 14 Jul 15 | 23,317 | 218.8 | 51,018 | 5,422,748 | 2.367 |
| Smart Metering Systems | Alan Foy (ce) | 15 Jul 15 | 1,109,350 | 315.5 | 3,499,999 | 7,780,608 | 9.040 |
| * placing/tender/open offer ♥ spouse/connected party Ω ISA/SIPP/Trust † despositary receipts ♣ intra-company deal | |||||||
