Shares in Diageo (DGE) hit an all-time intraday high earlier this month of 2,604p, and it’s easy to see why. In the full-year results announced at the end of July pre-tax profit was up by a quarter to £3.6bn, while revenue increased 16 per cent to £18.1bn. The growing popularity of whiskey and scotch in the US provided a boost to sales in North America as a whole, where the business had previously experienced a slowdown in turnover. This improvement looks set to continue with Diageo's recent acquisition of Casamigos, the 'house of friends' tequila brand co-founded by George Clooney.
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Diageo’s cost-saving goal was increased by £200m to £700m, and a £1.5bn share buyback programme was also announced, which indicates that management is confident in the company’s future. This confident tone was echoed last week when Diageo chairman Javier Ferrán purchased 65,000 shares at 2,503p each, for a total of £1.63m.
| Buys | |||||||
| Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
| Action Hotels♥ | Sheikh Mubarak A. M. Al-Sabah (ch) | 14 Aug 17 | 66,700 | 40.25 | 26,847 | 97,305,616 | 65.909 |
| Amino Technologies | Donna McGarva (ceo) | 14 Aug 17 | 2,780 | 179.4 | 4,987 | 445,428 | 0.615 |
| BT | Isabel Hudson | 11 Aug 17 | 3,367 | 295 | 9,933 | 15,090 | 0.000 |
| Bloomsbury Publishing | Richard Lambert (ch) | 10 Aug 17 | 10,000 | 176 | 17,600 | 10,000 | 0.013 |
| Capital & Regional | Laura Whyte | 11 Aug 17 | 13,250 | 56.5 | 7,486 | 72,036 | 0.010 |
| Diageo | Javier Ferrán (ch) | 14 Aug 17 | 65,000 | 2503 | 1,626,950 | 114,018 | 0.005 |
| Essentra | Paul Forman (ceo) | 10 Aug 17 | 20,000 | 520.3 | 104,060 | 100,000 | 0.038 |
| Essentra | Paul Forman (ceo) | 10 Aug 17 | 20,000 | 521.5 | 104,300 | 80,000 | 0.030 |
| Gaming Realms* | Michael Buckley (ch) | 14 Aug 17 | 1,000,000 | 11 | 110,000 | 23,000,000 | 8.086 |
| Gaming Realms* | Patrick Southon (ceo) | 14 Aug 17 | 681,818 | 11 | 75,000 | 12,417,319 | 4.366 |
| Glencore | Martin Gilbert | 10 Aug 17 | 50,000 | 338 | 169,000 | 50,000 | 0.000 |
| Helios Underwriting | Nigel Hanbury (ceo) | 15 Aug 17 | 15,000 | 147 | 22,050 | 1,678,016 | 11.490 |
| Ibstock | Justin Read | 11 Aug 17 | 7,500 | 227.226 | 17,042 | 17,500 | 0.004 |
| Inmarsat♥ | Simon Bax | 10 Aug 17 | 3,250 | 741.35 | 24,094 | 18,000 | 0.004 |
| Inmarsat | Simon Bax | 10 Aug 17 | 3,250 | 741.64 | 24,103 | 14,750 | 0.003 |
| Intermediate Capital | Rusty Nelligan | 10 Aug 17 | 1,042 | 935.43 | 9,747 | 51,042 | 0.018 |
| Intermediate Capital | Rusty Nelligan | 16 Aug 17 | 20,528 | 905.54 | 185,889 | 101,042 | 0.035 |
| Intermediate Capital | Rusty Nelligan | 16 Aug 17 | 29,472 | 893.99 | 263,477 | 80,514 | 0.028 |
| Intertek | Jean-Michel Valette | 11 Aug 17 | 10,000 | 4650 | 465,000 | 10,000 | 0.006 |
| Marechale Capital | Jeremy Stephenson | 14 Aug 17 | 400,000 | 1.19 | 4,760 | 400,000 | 0.693 |
| Mondi | Andrew King (cfo) | 10 Aug 17 | 20,000 | 1990 | 398,000 | 43,230 | 0.009 |
| Mondi | Andrew King (cfo) | 10 Aug 17 | 20,000 | 1993.38 | 398,676 | 3,230 | 0.001 |
| Mondi | Andrew King (cfo) | 10 Aug 17 | 20,000 | 1994.95 | 398,990 | 23,230 | 0.005 |
| Redcentric | Christopher Cole (ch) | 11 Aug 17 | 20,000 | 75.38 | 15,076 | 20,000 | 0.013 |
| Redcentric | Peter Brotherton (cfo & cs) | 16 Aug 17 | 20,000 | 79.625 | 15,925 | 20,000 | 0.013 |
| Redhall | Phillip Hilling | 10 Aug 17 | 106,564 | 9.384 | 10,000 | 357,455 | 0.107 |
| Rio Tinto | Sam Laidlaw | 14 Aug 17 | 7,500 | 3419.89 | 256,492 | 7,500 | 0.001 |
| Riverstone Energy♥ | David Leuschen | 15 Aug 17 | 25,000 | 1294.37 | 323,593 | 5,025,000 | 5.948 |
| Riverstone Energy♥ | Pierre Lapeyre | 16 Aug 17 | 15,565 | 1299.89 | 202,328 | 5,065,565 | 5.996 |
| Safestay | Stephen Moss | 14 Aug 17 | 42,500 | 54 | 22,950 | 125,833 | 0.368 |
| Spirent Communications♥ | Gary Bullard | 11 Aug 17 | 15,000 | 103.73 | 15,560 | 25,000 | 0.004 |
| Spirent Communications | Gary Bullard | 14 Aug 17 | 15,000 | 103.73 | 15,560 | 25,000 | 0.004 |
| Surface Transforms* | David Bundred (ch) | 10 Aug 17 | 161,300 | 15.5 | 25,002 | 894,641 | 0.785 |
| Tavistock Investments | Brian Raven (ceo) | 14 Aug 17 | 308,000 | 3.25 | 10,010 | 63,527,379 | 11.826 |
| Tower Resources* | Graeme Thomson | 11 Aug 17 | 553,434 | 1 | 5,534 | 4,150,767 | 2.946 |
| Trinity Exploration & Production | James Menzies | 14 Aug 17 | 250,000 | 11 | 27,500 | 250,000 | 0.089 |
| Ultra Electronics | Amitabh Sharma (gfd) | 16 Aug 17 | 786 | 1895.5 | 14,899 | 879 | 0.001 |
| VPC Specialty Lending Investments♥ | Richard Levy | 15 Aug 17 | 72,450 | 80.8 | 58,540 | 1,725,008 | 0.458 |
| Vitesse Media | Simon Stilwell | 11 Aug 17 | 6,373,799 | 2.5 | 159,345 | 7,013,799 | 10.864 |
| WideCells* | Marilyn Orcharton | 14 Aug 17 | 7,143 | 14 | 1,000 | 158,095 | 0.244 |
| Sells | |||||||
| Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
| Admiral♥** | David Stevens (ceo) | 16 Aug 17 | 225,000 | 2032 | 4,572,000 | 9,042,950 | 3.175 |
| CYBG | Debbie Crosbie (coo) | 14 Aug 17 | 10,875 | 290.51 | 31,593 | 99,515 | 0.011 |
| CYBG | Ian Smith (cfo) | 14 Aug 17 | 8,115 | 290.51 | 23,575 | 96,881 | 0.011 |
| Eco Animal Health♥ | Peter Lawrence (ch) | 15 Aug 17 | 700,000 | 650 | 4,550,000 | 6,948,477 | 10.383 |
| Ibstock | Kevin Sims (cfo) | 10 Aug 17 | 2,000,000 | 241 | 4,820,000 | 2,924,558 | 0.720 |
| Ibstock | Wayne Sheppard (ceo) | 10 Aug 17 | 2,500,000 | 241 | 6,025,000 | 5,076,244 | 1.249 |
| Mondi | Andrew King (cfo) | 10 Aug 17 | 18,330 | 1988.1 | 364,419 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Mondi | Andrew King (cfo) | 10 Aug 17 | 20,000 | 1987.64 | 397,528 | 21,560 | 0.004 |
| Mondi | Andrew King (cfo) | 10 Aug 17 | 20,000 | 1991 | 398,200 | 41,560 | 0.009 |
| Mondi | Andrew King (cfo) | 10 Aug 17 | 20,000 | 1992 | 398,400 | 1,560 | 0.000 |
| Qannas Investments* | Mustafa Kheriba | 10 Aug 17 | 70,125 | 90 | 63,113 | 461,603 | 0.770 |
| Savills | Jeremy Helsby (ceo) | 14 Aug 17 | 41,129 | 868.145 | 357,059 | 564,849 | 0.398 |
| Savills | Simon Shaw (cfo) | 14 Aug 17 | 22,849 | 868.145 | 198,362 | 155,864 | 0.110 |
| Tristel | Elizabeth Dixon (fd & cs) | 16 Aug 17 | 10,000 | 273 | 27,300 | 45,000 | 0.105 |
| *Placing/tender/open offer **Sale by charity gifted the shares ♥Spouse/connected party | |||||||
