Insider: boss buys Vistry plus £500k deal at UK tech stock

The new chief executive of Vistry Group (LSE:VTY) has backed up his confidence in the housebuilder’s turnaround potential by spending £100,000 on its ailing FTSE 250-listed shares.

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Adam Daniels, who has held the top job for three months after joining Vistry following its Countryside Partnerships acquisition in 2022, bought shares at 260.2p after they fell on his warning that Vistry is set to record a half-year loss of £30 million.

The guidance reflected challenging market conditions and the impact of management’s focus on cash generation to reduce debt levels. However, it still expects to meet the City’s full-year profit forecast of £200 million.

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The partnership-focused builder, whose shares were more than 1,300p in September 2024, said it would not favour short-term performance at the expense of long-term financial health.

Daniels has already made some organisational changes ahead of sharing the full results of a strategic review in September.

He said: “I remain absolutely committed to our differentiated partnerships strategy and I believe there is a significant opportunity to develop a more focused Vistry with improved profitability, a stronger balance sheet, higher returns on capital, and more consistent delivery.”

Non-executive director Paul Whetsell, who joined the board in 2023, also bought £38,000 worth of shares at 252.7p on Tuesday. He made an investment of £28,440 at 474p in March.

Panmure Liberum has a price target of 625p, while Peel Hunt expects to stay at 495p prior to September’s review.

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However, Deutsche Bank cut to 285p in response to the update and management’s initiatives to boost cash generation: “We think these actions, which will inevitably reduce the scale of the business, are the right steps to take.

“However, risks remain as to the second half weighting to profit guidance and how quick the group can reduce leverage, against the backdrop of a challenging market.”

Directors take a big byte

Resurgent Microsoft reseller Bytes Technology Group  Ordinary Shares (LSE:BYIT) has been backed to extend its strong run after directors spent £515,000 on shares at prices 60% higher than four months ago.

The dealings by chief executive Sam Mudd and chair-designate Gavin Rochussen took place last week at near to 415p, which compares with the record low of 253.6p in mid-March.

The FTSE 250-listed company, which is one of Microsoft’s largest UK partners by revenue, remains short of the 500p level seen prior to the warning at last summer’s AGM that it had experienced some deferral of customer buying decisions.

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This month’s AGM statement struck a more upbeat tone as Mudd told investors that Bytes had traded well during the first four months of the financial year, with double-digit growth in gross invoiced income (GII) and gross profit across both the private and public sectors.

The brief trading update came a month after NHS England announced plans to roll out Microsoft 365 Copilot to 505,000 clinicians and support staff in the largest implementation of its kind in the healthcare sector.

The NHS is Bytes’ largest customer by GII, having signed a five-year contract in 2023 worth £155 million per year.

As well as its 40-year-old partnership with Microsoft, Bytes works with more than 100 vendors that make or distribute software, hardware and other IT products.

Mudd said this month: “We operate in a large and growing market, focusing on software solutions across AI, cloud and cybersecurity.

“We remain confident that our deep vendor partnerships, strong customer relationships and ongoing investment in our employees position us well to achieve our strategic goals for the year."

Peel Hunt reiterated its 469p target price and Buy rating following the update, which it said continued to de-risk the City’s growth and margin expectations for 2026/27.

Highlighting the investment case for value-added resellers in the age of AI, the broker said Bytes’ relevance has never been greater and that it would not be surprised to see it partner AI foundation model companies.

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Panmure Liberum, which has a target price of 475p, pointed out recently that Microsoft’s last set of results were strong and that Wall Street consensus expected compound annual revenues growth of 17% between 2025 and 2028.

It said this included 20.6% growth from the product lines which matter to Bytes, including Productivity & Business Processes (software) and Cloud.

The broker added: “We think it’s just a matter of time before Bytes agrees a partnership with an AI-company such as Anthropic.”

Last week’s dealings were led by Rochussen, who spent £415,000 on shares just three days after joining the board as a non-executive director.

The former chief executive of asset manager Polar Capital Holdings will succeed Patrick De Smedt, who has led the Bytes board since its 270p-a-share listing in December 2020 and is due to stand down as chair in September.