Executive decisions – Vikki Kunz follows the bosses buying and selling

Directors selling stock are still outnumbering those buying by a considerable margin and the past month has seen one or two lucky players cashing in eye-catching amounts

In the four weeks to mid-September director sells far outweighed the buys – no surprise there for all readers of this column. In total, directors sold £106.5 million worth of shares and bought a mere £23.2 million. This creates a ratio of sells to buys of six to one, which is above the historical average of 2.5 to one, but actually below the three month average of 7.4 to one. Only to a very generously minded person would this indicate that directors appear to be growing in confidence about the prospects of the market.

Cashing in

In amongst the sellers there were a few rather eye-catching deals. Chief executive Mike Danson

of financial information provider Datamonitor offloaded 4.1 per cent of his company at 128p per share, receiving £3.7 million for his efforts. He still holds 36.6 per cent of the group and the market reacted rather kindly to his actions – the shares are now 132p .

Danson's haul was made to look like small beer compared to the wealth-realising antics of Topps Tiles co-chairman Barry Bester, who sold 2.85 per cent of his 11.03 per cent holding in the tile and wooden floor-covering retailer. The 6.5 million shares he sold for 182.9p each provided him with £11.8 million. Topps shares now trade at 172.5p.

Tasty returns...

The Restaurant Group, formerly known as City Centre Restaurants, served up a fantastic set of interim results with pre-tax profits rising 40 per cent to £9.8 million. On the same day one of its directors, Alan Jackson, took the opportunity to exercise his options to subscribe for 800,000 shares at 45p. He promptly sold 640,979 at 99p, netting £274,569.

...and not so tasty

You may remember XP Power's executive chairman Larry Tracey. I mentioned a few months back that he had unfortunate timing when selling his shares. Well, he dabbled in the market once again, selling 400,000 shares in the power supply solutions provider at 400p each. This netted £1.6 million, an amount not to be sneezed at. But if he'd sold at the end of July he could have got 459p per share.

Don't forget the buyers

Lest we forget, a merry band of company directors in growth companies are busy buying shares, with a few dabbling in the market after their firms issued less than glorious financial results.

Recently, Aim-listed ATM operator Moneybox saw its shares halved to 20p following a profit warning. Although the first-half figures to June offered underlying profits of £300,000 compared to last year's £900,000 loss, July and August revenues disappointed and the company is expected to produce only £1.9 million in profits for the full year. Undeterred, director Andrew Neubauer acquired 100,000 shares at 19.75p. The shares have recovered to 26p, which has no doubt raised a few cheers.

Interior glee

The results at Interior Service Group (ISG), which by its own admission has endured a 'challenging' year, were better than many anticiapted. To June, the company turned previous pre-tax losses of £2.9 million into pre-tax profits of £2.3 million. Its order book is now £501 million and it is looking to grab a slice of the Private Finance Initiative action. Considering ISG's share price was 150p at the same time last year, it was interesting to see its company directors showing faith by snapping up a total of 82,500 shares, led by chief executive David King, for an average price of 175p.