4 shares the pros are buying and selling

AB Dynamics

Citywire AAA-rated value veterans Anthony Cross and Julian Fosh have taken some profits on vehicle testing and simulation business AB Dynamics (ABDP) as its shares recover from a January correction.

The managers cut their investment in the business from 5% of the shares to 4.9% worth £8.5 million at a share price of 887p, down from an all-time high of £10.82 early this year.

The shares are held in their £825 million Liontrust UK Smaller Companies and £23 million UK Micro Cap funds, collectively a top three holder of the stock

Investors got a sudden case of cold feet on AB Dynamics after driving a six-fold appreciation in its share price over the three years to end 2017. The sell-off cooled the company’s lofty price to earnings multiple from a peak of 52.3 to a still-ambitious 43.5.

Brokers Panmure Gordon and Cantor Fitzgerald both rate the stock a ‘buy’.

Walker Crips

Veteran small cap dividend investors Gervais Williams and Martin Turner have pared their exposure to wealth manager and stockbroker Walker Crips (WCW) as its shares dip to a five-year low.

Williams cut his holding in the business from just over 5% of the shares to 4.9% worth £775,150 at a share price of 37p, down from a recent high of 48p.

The shares are held in his £113 million Miton UK MicroCap Trust.

Walker Crips is one of a number of small-cap brokers to have been squeezed in recent years as regulatory change and risk aversion kept the market for new share issuance muted.

Shares in the business have traded in a fairly narrow band between a high of 53p and a low of 38p, but fell to a low of 37p for the first time since September 2015 this month.

The company reported a pre-tax profit of £500,000 in the six months to end September 2017, unchanged on the same period of the year before.

Telecom Plus

Citywire AAA-rated small cap supremo Harry Nimmo has upped his stake in direct-marketing utility provider Telecom Plus (TEP) as the shares rally from the lows hit last year after U-turning on a buyback.

Nimmo increased his holding in the business from 11% of the shares to just over 12% worth £112 million at a share price of £12.46, up from a low of £10.69 in September 2017.

The shares are held in his £1.4 billion Standard Life UK Smaller Companies fund and his £519 million UK Smaller Companies trust.

Telecom Plus markets itself under the name Utility Warehouse. The company is unusual in its sector, offering a discounting scheme to customers who sign up others.

Its shares have slid from a 2014 high of £18.94 as energy prices have cooled and politicians have begun to threaten tighter controls on opaque tariffs. Investors sold it off a further 13% in June last year after it scaled back the size of a planned return of cash, citing regulatory fears.

McBride

Citywire A-rated blue-chip growth manager Alex Savvides has upped his stake in own-brand household staples manufacturer McBride (MCB) as a recent nosedive in its shares steepens.

Savvides increased his stake in the business from 4.9% of shares to 5.1% or 9.3 million worth just over £14 million at a share price of 150p, down 34% in the year so far from a high of 232p.

The shares are held in his £969 million JOHCM UK Dynamic fund.

McBride produces a range of cleaning and bathroom products marketed under retailers’ own names.

A three-year bull run in the business has abruptly reversed this year as it reported a 3.4% slide in like-for-like sales over the second half of 2017, as it lost a number of significant contracts.