• S4 Capital chief operating officer offloads nearly £3 million shares
• Experian directors go on a spending spree
• Wood Group director buys after share price fall

The chief operating officer (COO) of London-based digital advertising agency S4 Capital (SFOR) has offloaded nearly £3 million worth of shares in the company. 

Christopher Martin sold 2,087,984 shares at 134p for a total value of £2.8 million on 16 May. Martin’s sale is ‘to cover tax, estate and personal financial obligations’, the company said in a statement.

His sale comes after S4 recently reported a 27% rise in total revenue to £261.7 million for the three months to 31 March 2023.

The company said it ‘remains cautiously optimistic’ for 2023 and ‘expects to continue growing its client base.’

EXPERIAN DIRECTORS GO ON A SPENDING SPREE

Three non-executive directors from credit checking group Experian (EXPN) Alison Brittan, Jonathan Howell and Louise Pentland have gone on a spending spree buying a total number of 12,800 shares for over £350,000 on the 18 and 17 May, taking advantage of a recent share price fall.

Experian’s shares have fallen around 3% in the past six months to around £28.

The company reported a 6% rise in revenue for the year ending 31 March 2023 to $6.59 billion from $6.22 billion a year ago but Experian issued a cautious outlook at the time of the results causing a few City analysts to take note.

Shore Capital analyst Robin Speakman said for the financial year 2024 he had forecast a like-for-like growth of 7% against updated guidance of 4% to 6%.

‘A more cautious outlook then at this stage, but still good growth in the context of Experian’s performance over the past few years through the pandemic in achieving constant compounding growth.

‘So, the recent struggles of US regional banks, following the collapse of SVB could hold Experian back a little in the near term. We expect to ‘shave’ our FY24 forecast assumptions accordingly,’ he added.

WOOD GROUP DIRECTOR MAKES THE MOST OF SHARE PRICE FALL

Roy Franklin, non-executive director of Scottish-based oil and gas engineering and services firm Wood Group (John) (WG.) bought 37,000 shares at 138p for a total value of £51,060 on 18 May.

The purchase follows a 40% fall as Wood Group as one-time suitor, private equity firm Apollo, walked away from a deal.

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