ARM directors take advantage of strong share price

Chip designer ARM's chief executive and finance director have both sold shares following a 143% increase in the share price over the past year.

Chief executive Warren East sold 140,000 shares at 321.03p each, which raised just over £449,000. East joined ARM in 1994 and he has been chief executive since October 2001. In a separate deal, East exercised an option over 8,559 Save As You Earn shares at 110.4p each. He owns 918,559 shares in ARM.

Finance director Tim Score sold 200,000 shares at 316.76p each, which raised just short of £634,000. Score has been finance director since 2002. Score still owns 283,213 shares.

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Demand for new gadgets has pushed profits higher, as shown by last week's results. ARM, whose chips are used in some of the tech giant Apple's products, posted a pre-tax profit of £43.5m in the three months to June 30, up from £16.3m over the same period the previous year.

Nomura increased its target price for the shares from 250p to 330p last week. Panmure Gordon is a seller of the shares and has a target price of 275p a share. The shares are trading on around 40 times prospective 2010 earnings.

Top Director Buys

CSR (CSR) Director name: Mr Will GardinerAmount purchased: 28,409 @ 352.27p Value: £100,076

Acal (ACL) Director name: Mr Nick JeffriesAmount purchased: 14,634 @ 205.00p Value: £30,000

Filtronic (FTC) Director name: Mr Reginald L GottAmount purchased: 28,515 @ 35.70p Value: £10,180

Top Director Sells

Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) Director name: Mr Martin J GilbertAmount sold: 500,000 @ 140.80p Value: £704,000

ARM Holdings (ARM) Director name: Mr Tim ScoreAmount sold: 200,000 @ 316.76p Value: £633,520

ARM Holdings (ARM) Director name: Mr Warren EastAmount sold: 140,000 @ 321.03p Value: £449,442

Asian Citrus (ACHL) Director name: Mr Cheung Wai SunAmount sold: 330,000 @ 50.39p Value: £166,287

GW Pharmaceuticals (GWP) Director name: Mr Geoffrey GuyAmount sold: 51,910 @ 116.00p Value: £60,216

GW Pharmaceuticals (GWP) Director name: Mr Geoffrey GuyAmount sold: 40,920 @ 108.30p Value: £44,316

TR European Growth Trust (TRG) Director name: Mr Jochen NeynaberAmount sold: 4,994 @ 349.75p Value: £17,467