Director sells an ARM and a leg worth of shares

Mike Inglis, the Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Processor Division of ARM, the FTSE 100 chip designer, has sold more than half his stake in the firm.

Inglis, who took up his role in July 2008, sold 291,651 at 562.25p each for a total of £1,639,808, taking his total number of shares to 200,000.

The sale comes less than a month after the group's strong growth in licensing revenues helped it beat forecasts in the fourth quarter and for the full-year.

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Fourth quarter sales totalled £137.8m, up from £113.9m the year before and well ahead of the £127m expected by Bloomberg consensus, as the group sold 2.2bn of its ARM technology-based chips, the highest-ever number of ARM-processor based shipments.

Full-year revenues rose 21% from £406.6m to £491.8m in the 12 months ended December 31st, compared to Nomura's forecast of £475m. Meanwhile, pre-tax profits jumped 37% from £167.4m to £229.7m, under Nomura's £215m estimate. Earnings per share rose from 9.34p to 12.45p.

ARM shares have lost over 5.5% of their value over the past year and almost 4% over the past month, currently at the 574.00p mark.

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