Xaar CEO slashes stake after share-price surge

30th Aug 2013 16:00

The long-running frontman of injet printing technology firm Xaar sold 150,000 shares in the company on the same day it reported an impressive set of first-half results with the stock trading close to an all-time high.Ian Dinwoodie, who has been Chief Executive Officer for over a decade, disposed of the shares at a price of 834.5p each, earning himself £1.25m. The transaction - which comes after a near-200% surge in its share price since the start of 2013 - cut his holding by nearly a quarter to 57,449, equal to a 0.08% stake.The company said that this deal was part of a pension fund re-balancing exercise.Meanwhile, Ramon Borrell, Research and Development Director, exercised options over 205,357 shares in the company under its long-term incentive plan of 2007. The shares were then sold at a price of 841.0627p, earning him £1.73m. His stake remained at 0.24% following the transaction.Xaar hiked its dividend by 150% in the first half after adjusted profits more than tripled to £22.3m on revenues that nearly doubled to £67.2m. The shares however failed to rise after the results on Thursday.Analyst Thomas Rands from Investec explained: "After four upgrades in nine months the lack of further positive revisions will surely disappoint some; however, this pause was highly likely after what has been a very strong outperformance."Top Director BuysIntu Properties (INTU) Director name: Mr John Whittaker Amount purchased: 50,000 @ 307.80p Value: £153,900Renold (RNO) Director name: Mr Robert PurcellAmount purchased: 500,000 @ 28.00p Value: £140,000Serco Group (SRP) Director name: Mr Alastair Lyons CBEAmount purchased: 18,600 @ 534.80p Value: £99,473Serco Group (SRP) Director name: Mr Christopher R HymanAmount purchased: 18,400 @ 539.50p Value: £99,268office2office (OFF) Director name: Mr David CallearAmount purchased: 200,000 @ 34.00p Value: £68,000Sierra Rutile Ltd (SRX) Director name: Mr Jan Alex CastroAmount purchased: 125,000 @ 54.00p Value: £67,500Serco Group (SRP) Director name: Mr Andrew JennerAmount purchased: 9,030 @ 549.49p Value: £49,619Top Director SellsXaar (XAR) Director name: Mr Ramon BorrellAmount sold: 205,357 @ 841.06p Value: £1,727,176Xaar (XAR) Director name: Mr Ian DinwoodieAmount sold: 150,000 @ 834.50p Value: £1,251,750Randall & Quilter Investment Holdings (DI) (RQIH) Director name: Mr Paul McNamaraAmount sold: 15,000 @ 138.00p Value: £20,700LMS Capital (LMS) Director name: Mr Bernard J. Duroc-DannerAmount sold: 14,151 @ 76.80p Value: £10,868BC