Director Dealings: IS Solutions in demand after sales soar 25%

DESPITE some clients delaying spending on projects, web development company IS Solutions saw strong growth in the first half of the year.

Sales increased by 25.2 per cent to 6.41 million, with adjusted pre-tax profits increasing by 18.8 per cent to 253,000.

The company said it was benefiting from a focus on generating an increasing level of recurring revenue from customers and it now accounted for almost two-thirds of profits.

Although there was some uncertainty over the general economic outlook, the board said it was confident of achieving market expectations for the full year ending December 2010.

Last week non-executive director Peter English went into the market to up his stake, with three separate purchases totalling 97,500 shares at around 35p each.

He how holds more than 550,000 shares in the company, which has already seen its market value double over the past year.

• Peter Ratcliffe, a non-executive director at banking technology group Monitise, has bought 50,000 shares at 18.83p each and now holds 525,000 shares.

• James Noble, chairman of Dundee-based dental technology group 3D Diagnostic Imaging, has bought 200,000 shares at 7.75p per share following its debut on AIM last week and now holds 10.3 million shares.

• Simon Barrell, a non-executive director of vehicle tracking company Suretrack Monitoring, has upped his stake with the purchase of 833,334 shares at 0.5p each. He now holds just over 2.5 million shares.

• Andrew Adams, a non-executive director at copper and gold group First Quantum Minerals, has sold 14,286 shares at around 5,567p. He retains a stake of 15,000 shares.

• Alan Stewart, the new finance director at Marks & Spencer, has bought his first shares in the company, taking a stake of 10,000 shares at 375.44p each. Earlier in the week, incoming chairman Robert Swannell, bought 20,000 shares.

• Two directors at advertising and publishing group Media Corp have increased their stakes. Chief executive Justin Drummond bought 500,000 shares at 2.35p each to take his stake to 23.5 million.

Group finance director Nilesh Jagatia bought 100,000 shares and now holds 510,000.

• Judith Sprieser, a non-executive director at credit rating firm Experian, has bought 13,590 shares at 746.25p each.

• Brody Sweeney, a non-executive director at Irish bookmaking group Paddy Power, has sold his shares. He disposed of 5,550 shares at 3,403.71p each.