James Norris reviews directors buying and selling shares in their own company in his weekly column.
- Non-exec sells 1m shares in Eagle Eye Solutions
- Non-exec buys 2,873 shares in Tracsis
- IQGeo non-exec buys 18,000 shares
- Non-exec buys more shares in Seeing Machines
- Chief Executive buys 25,000 shares in Gear4music
Eagle Eye Solutions Group LON:EYE non-executive director William Currie last Friday sold 1.08m ordinary shares in the company at a price of 555p per share, for a total of £5.99m. Eagle Eye Solutions, an SaaS technology company, the day before had announced it had conditionally agreed to acquire all share capital of Untie Nots and its subsidiaries, a leading digital promotions business based in France providing large retailers (including Carrefour, Leclerc and Auchan) with AI-powered promotion and gamification SaaS software solutions, for £13m. At the same time, the company launched a fully underwritten placing of new ordinary shares to raise £7m at a price of 555p per share. At close of trading yesterday, the stock was priced at 567.5p, a return of -16.2% YTD and -6.9% over 12 months.
Tracsis LON:TRCS non-executive director Liz Richards has bought 2,873 shares at 870p for £24,995. Tracsis, the rail, traffic data and transport technology specialist, reported a ‘strong’ financial performance in its final results earlier this month. Revenue for the 12 months ended 31 July was up 37% at £68.7m, almost two-thirds of which came from revenue growth in its data, analytics, consultancy and events division, and 13% from the rail technology and services division. Adjusted Ebitda was up 9% y/y at £14.2m, while its profit before tax almost halved to £2.6m from £4.6m. At close of trading yesterday, the stock was priced at 910p, a return of -6.3% YTD and -14.5% over 12 months.
IQGeo Group LON:IQG non-executive director Max Royde has bought 18,000 shares at 180p for £32,400. Royde bought the shares through specialist software investors Kestrel Partners, of which he is a partner and shareholder. Royde has been building his IQG shareholding through Kestrel: on 4 November he bought 20,000 shares at 168p, and on 31 October he bought 10,000 shares at 164p. IQG, a developer of geospatial software that is “building better networks” for telecom and utility operators, in October announced three contract wins, one with a major Dutch utility and two with top-10 US fiber network operators. At close of trading yesterday, the stock was priced at 192.5p, a return of 46.4% YTD and 46.3% over 12 months.
Seeing Machines Limited LON:SEE, the driver monitoring and transport safety technology company, has announced that non-executive director Michael Brown, through Lombard Odier Asset Management (Europe) Ltd, for which he works as an investment manager, yesterday bought 1.42m ordinary shares at 6.4p per share, worth £91,672. Last week, he bought a further 950,000 shares in two tranches. The trades follow LOAME’s announcement on 11 November of a “reorganisation” of certain funds following the recent investment in the company by Magna International. At the time, LOAME stated, “it has no intention of reducing its holding in Seeing Machines in the foreseeable future”. At close of trading yesterday, the stock was priced at 6.92p, a return of -34.0% YTD and -41.2% over 12 months.
Gear4music LON:G4M chief executive Andrew Wass has bought 25,000 shares in the company at 102p per share, for £25,500. G4M, which sells own-brand musical instruments and equipment, alongside premium third-party brands such as Fender, Yamaha and Roland, last week reported “a consistent improvement in trading momentum during the last two months, despite continuing macro volatility”. Wass stated the board “remains confident that results for the full financial year will be in-line with current consensus market expectations”. At close of trading yesterday, the stock was priced at 107.5p, a return of -84.7% YTD and -82.8% over 12 months.
