- Diploma chief’s wife buys just under £65,000 on shares
- Diploma management confirm guidance in recent update
- Tesco director invests $45,00o despite disappointing first quarter
Michele Claude Lowden, wife of Diploma (DPLM) non-executive chair David Lowden, bought 2,500 shares on 30 August.
She paid £25.76 for each share, valuing the transaction at £64,391.27. Following the transaction, David Lowden's holding in the group amounted to 2,500 shares.
So far in 2022 the shares have fallen by 28%. This is despite the industrial and life science equipment supplier delivering an upbeat first half report (16 May) with management confirming its recently raised guidance.
For the six months to March the company registered a 23% increase in revenues to £448.5 million thanks to 16% underlying growth.
The company said it successfully navigated supply chain challenges along with inflation in materials and labour costs, increasing its operating margin by 0.2% to 18.4% during the half.
The controls business delivered a 28% increase in revenues thanks to an ‘excellent’ contribution from WCW, while sales in the seals business rose 15% helped by ‘accelerated market share gains’ in the North American after-market.
Life sciences revenues were slightly disappointing, falling 2% on an underlying basis excluding last year’s Covid-related revenues, due to renewed lockdowns this year in Australia and Canada.
The more recent trading update (21 July) for the nine months ended 30 June, confirmed management’s confidence in delivering low double digit organic revenue growth and operating margin at the top end of the 18-19% guidance range.
TESCO DIRECTOR INVESTS MORE THAN $45,000
A Tesco non-executive director bought more than $45,000 of the retail giant's American depositary receipts (ADR's)
Bryon Grote purchased 18,000 ADRs on Thursday 25 August for $3.04 each, in an over-the-counter (OTC) transaction in the US.
A single American depositary receipt is equivalent to three of its ordinary shares. The transaction equates to a nominal value of $45,122.45. Over the last six months Tesco shares have fallen by 12.7%, and year to date are down 15.7%.
On 17 June Britain’s biggest grocer Tesco (TSCO) reported a worse-than-expected drop in first quarter domestic like-for-like sales and warned the market remains ‘incredibly challenging’ with hot inflation starting to alter shoppers’ behaviour,
Tesco’s CEO Ken Murphy said ‘we are seeing some early indications of changing customer behaviour as a result of the inflationary environment.
‘Customers are facing unprecedented increases in the cost of living and it is therefore even more important that we work with our supplier partners to mitigate as much inflation as possible.’
Following the update, Shore Capital stuck with its year to February 2023 forecasts of £2.45 billion worth of adjusted retail operating profit, pre-tax profits of £1.98 billion and earnings per share of 20.6p.
