Directors dealings: Relation of Essentra's chairman picks up some shares

Karen Tracy Lester, a relation of Essentra’s non-executive chairman, Paul Lester, picked up a significant amount of stock in the supplier of specialist packaging materials.

Lester bought 7,500 shares at 822.5p apiece on Monday, for a total amount of £61,687.5, the company said in a regulatory statement.

On 19 February, the FTSE 250-listed plastic and fibre products firm said adjusted operating profits grew 20% to £172m at constant currencies last year, despite the impact of the downturn in the oil and gas sector, which hit revenues at its Pipe Protection Technologies (PPT) and capped the rate of growth in total group like-for-like sales at 1.0%.

Excluding PPT, like-for-like sales rose 5.0%; nevertheless, full-year revenues of £1.098bn were 2.05 below the Reuters consensus.

Even so, the Milton Keynes-based outfit expressed confidence in the outlook and recommended the board increase its full-year dividend by 13.0% to 20.7p.

In a research report dated 22 February, analysts at Deutsche Bank cut their forecasts for the company’s earnings before taxes, interest, taxes and amortisation in 2016 – mainly as a result of a recalibration of their FX assumptions.

The broker said it did not expect the margin benefit from Filters to continue into 2016, although that would be partially compensated for by better treasury (tax, number of shares).

As of 16:04 BST shares in Essentra were trading up by 0.12% to 825.5p.

Top Director Buys

Essentra (ESNT)
Director name: Lester,Paul J
Amount purchased: 7,500 @ 822.50p
Value: £61,687.50

Richland Resources Ltd (RLD)
Director name: Mpungwe,Ami R
Amount purchased: 1,567,114 @ 3.40p
Value: £53,281.88

Mysale Group (MYSL)
Director name: McDonald,Iain
Amount purchased: 100,000 @ 50.99p
Value: £50,991.50

Richland Resources Ltd (RLD)
Director name: Nealon,Edward F G
Amount purchased: 1,359,889 @ 3.40p
Value: £46,236.23

Richland Resources Ltd (RLD)
Director name: Olivier,Bernard
Amount purchased: 1,243,329 @ 3.40p
Value: £42,273.19

Richland Resources Ltd (RLD)
Director name: Sibley,Nicholas T
Amount purchased: 1,230,377 @ 3.40p
Value: £41,832.82

Oxford Instruments (OXIG)
Director name: Flint,David (Jonathan)
Amount purchased: 23 @ 673.00p
Value: £154.79

Oxford Instruments (OXIG)
Director name: Boyd,Kevin
Amount purchased: 23 @ 673.00p
Value: £154.79

Oxford Instruments (OXIG)
Director name: Flint,David (Jonathan)
Amount purchased: 19 @ 673.00p
Value: £127.87

Petrofac Ltd. (PFC)
Director name: Weller,TimÂ
Amount purchased: 14 @ 892.96p
Value: £125.01

Top Director Sells

Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd (singapore Reg) (JAR)
Director name: Weatherall,E P K
Amount purchased: 7,500 @ $58.41
Value: $438,059.26