- CentralNic non-executive buys after upgrades- Domino's director adds to his stake- Jet2 mogul jettisons £38m of sharesAs we approach the year-end, we thought it might be instructive to see which directors have been most active in buying - and selling - their companies' shares.Using the Director Deals function on the Shares website, we ranked the most active directors over the last three and...

- Alfa Financial chairman and CEO sell over £9 million shares- Combined deals represent around 3% of their holdings- Renew director nets over half a millionAndrew Page, chairman of Alfa Financial Software (ALFA), a company providing mission critical software to the asset finance industry, sold 5.3 million shares netting him £8.4 million in proceeds.The sale was made via CHP Software and...

London's FTSE 100 reversed 24.2 points to 7,343.25 on Monday with investors spooked by the attack on Saudi oil facilities and flocking to safer havens such as gold. Markets were also weak across other parts of Europe and Asia where investors reacted in a similar manner to the oil price spike and how it might fuel inflation.In corporate news, Tullow Oil (TLW) gushed 9.9% higher to 244.3p on...

Investors are certainly seeing the glass half full when it comes to UK asset and consumer finance industry software supplier Alfa Financial (ALFA), for today at least.Beating full year forecasts will typically do that. 'Revenues in line and adjusted profit across a number of measures 10% to 15% better than our forecasts', admit analysts at broker Numis Securities today.You can read the...

There is a slow start for UK stocks on Thursday as several stocks trade ex-dividend and after weakness in Asia overnight. The FTSE 100 down 0.4% to 7,169.14.Industrial turnaround specialist Melrose Industries (MRO) gains 4.1% to 187.4p as full-year adjusted pre-tax profit almost trebles thanks to its acquisition of British engineering group GKN last year.It reports a pre-tax profit of £703m...

In little more than a year Alfa Financial Software (ALFA) has gone from cherished FTSE 250 technology luminary to virtual stock market leper.In a similar vein to Sir Richard Branson's quip about how to become a millionaire (start with a billion, then buy an airline), owning shares in Alfa Financial have, thus far, been a ticket to the poor house.Founded by executive chairman Andrew Page in...

Shares in the world's biggest advertising agency WPP (WPP) plunge more than 7% to £11.88 in early trade on Tuesday, heading the FTSE 100 loser board, after posting lower revenues in its first half results.The group, which confirmed Mark Read as its new chief executive yesterday, also raised its sales expectations for the full year, not that investors are giving it much credit for doing...

It is fair to say that 2018 is shaping up to be a difficult year for investors. Stocks are volatile, and the market is in very unforgiving mood with even the hint of bad news prompting big falls in company share prices.Already this year funerals provider Dignity (DTY) announced a complete change to its business model which sparked an immediate halving of its share price while technology firms...

It has been a tough first quarter of 2018 for the markets, spooked by the prospect of interest rate hikes, geo-political tensions and the threat of a trade war between the US and China.AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould says: 'Data suggests the FTSE 100 is the worst performing major stock market index in the first quarter of 2018, assuming no major changes to its performance today.WORST...

The UK stock market is being very edgy with extreme reactions to negative news. More than 230 companies have seen their share price fall by more than 20% year-to-date.That's approximately 12% of the entire market and nearly twice as many as the number of companies which fell by more than a fifth in value in the same period last year.It feels like there is at least one stock falling by a large...

Alfa Financial Software (ALFA)Loss to date: 20% (stopped out)Original entry price: 482.75p, 3 August 2017A high valuation left our positive call on software firm Alfa Financial Software (ALFA) vulnerable to disappointing news and this was reflected in a big sell-off for the shares in response to its 2017 results (8 Mar).More specifically investors were concerned about the timing of new...

The first full year figures from Alfa Financial Software (ALFA) since its stock market debut in June 2017 are bang in line with expectations. The numbers are decent yet the share price has fallen nearly 20% off the back of the figures to 390p as investors worry about the timing of new contracts.'Alfa continues to see a strong and diverse pipeline of opportunities which underpin the board's...

London's FTSE 100 drifts 3.7 points lower to 7,154 on Thursday, European markets quiet ahead of the European Central Bank's interest rate vote and press conference later on.A busy day for corporate reporting sees estate agent Countrywide (CWD) crash 20.7% lower to 70.5p on a warning adjusted EBITDA for the first half of 2018 will fall by 'around £10m'.The news accompanies disappointing 2017...

There's a very good chance that other predators are silently circling Fidessa (FDSA), the global leader in trading software systems and data to financial institutions which has today become a bid target.News of takeover talks with Switzerland-based Temenos, the global banking software company, seemingly came out of the blue. Temenos has proposed to pay £35.67 per Fidessa share in...

'It has been a good year, but it is still early days,' says Rosemary Banyard, manager of the CFP SDL Free Spirit (GB00BYYQC271) fund, a £7.2m OEIC which has just celebrated its one-year anniversary (3 Jan 2018).The investment objective of this concentrated fund is to achieve real growth in capital and income over the long term, through investments mainly in UK equities listed on the LSE, AIM...

Growth, or the perception of it, is arguably the biggest driver of share prices. So what is a growth stock?The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines a growth business as a company of 10 or more employees that grows revenues by an average of more than 20% per year for three consecutive years.'That sounds like a good enough definition,' says Lorne Daniel, an...

Retail investors are missing out on significant gains enjoyed by institutional investors who are able to take part in IPOs (initial public offerings), according to analysis by Shares and AJ Bell.We've calculated the share price performance of every IPO this year and compared the gains between buying at the IPO offer price and buying at the first available price in the market on day one.The...

WHAT IS A GROWTH STOCK?Growth, or the perception of it, is arguably the biggest driver of share prices.The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines a growth business as a company of 10 or more employees that grows revenues by an average of more than 20% per year for three consecutive years.'That sounds like a good enough definition,' says Lorne Daniel, an analyst...

Alfa Financial (ALFA) 490pGain to date: 1.5%Original entry point: Buy at 482.75p, 3 August 2017Debut half year results (31 Aug) from the enterprise software supplier to the asset and consumer finance industry were impressive. Revenue and adjusted earnings before interest and tax increased 29% and 20% respectively, and that's after stripping out currency benefits.The scale of the opportunity is...

Britain's Restaurant (RTN) reports a 30% drop in half year underlying pre-tax profit on Thursday, as slowing consumer spending weighs on sales. Yet shares in the Frankie & Benny's and Garfunkel's owner rally close on 5% at 333.1p with investors relieved to hear of a bulging pipeline of growth opportunities and progress with a Frankie & Benny's value proposition despite the dividend staying...