Sports Direct's Ashley sells 16m shares, YouGov founder trades in 3.35m

Sports Direct's founder Mike Ashley has sold 16m shares in the retailer, representing a 2.7 per cent holding and netting the billionaire owner of Newcastle United 106m pounds.An announcement to the stock exchange revealed Ashley had sold the shares at a price of 662.5p, marking a 7.5% discount to Wednesday's closing price of 712p and sending them tumbling nearly 4% to 683.61p on Thursday. Ashley, who founded Sports Direct in 1982, still owns a 61.7% holding in the company and has agreed not to sell any more shares for another 180 days.The share sale comes hot on the heels of a trading update from the retailer which was issued on Wednesday and showed group sales had risen 15.1% in the nine weeks to September 29th.Stephan Shakespeare, the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of YouGov, disposed of 3.35m shares in the internet-based market research firm. In a sale made for "personal financial and tax planning purposes" to repay a personal loan, Shakespeare traded the shares in for 76.5p each, earning a total of £2.56m. The director, who has pledged not to sell any more shares before at least 2015, now owns a 5.88% stake in the firm, equal to a total of just under 5.72m shares. The disposal was made 10 days after the AIM-listed company posted an 8% increase in full-year revenue to £62.6m, while profit before tax and exceptional items swelled 13% to £6.8m.The group invested in data products to lower its reliance on custom research, growing this area 17% in the year to account for 24% of group revenues.YouGov continued to tighten its operating expenses, but as a result of the focus on data saw gross margins fall slightly due to higher external data collection costs as more international off-panel work was conducted. Looking forward, Shakespeare said he was encouraged that clients were demanding "a more data centric focus" to their market research and that for the coming year the company expected to see continued growth in revenue and profits. Top Director BuysSThree (STHR) Director name: Mr Gary EldenAmount purchased: 15,149 @ 345.00p Value: £52,264HaloSource Inc. (Reg S) (HAL) Director name: Mr Martin ColesAmount purchased: 250,000 @ 17.25p Value: £43,125Centaur Media (CAU) Director name: Mr Patrick TaylorAmount purchased: 50,000 @ 51.00p Value: £25,500Falkland Oil & Gas Ltd. (FOGL) Director name: Mr Tim BushellAmount purchased: 90,000 @ 28.00p Value: £25,200Falkland Oil & Gas Ltd. (FOGL) Director name: Mr R T LiddellAmount purchased: 75,000 @ 28.25p Value: £21,188Falkland Oil & Gas Ltd. (FOGL) Director name: Mr Timothy S JonesAmount purchased: 50,000 @ 28.25p Value: £14,125Melrose Industries (MRO) Director name: Mr Justin DowleyAmount purchased: 3,825 @ 300.42p Value: £11,491Top Director SellsASOS (ASC) Director name: Mr Nicholas RobertsonAmount sold: 840,000 @ 5,000.00p Value: £42,000,000ASOS (ASC) Director name: Mr Nicholas RobertsonAmount sold: 744,792 @ 5,000.00p Value: £37,239,600ASOS (ASC) Director name: Mr Nick BeightonAmount sold: 240,000 @ 5,000.00p Value: £12,000,000YouGov (YOU) Director name: Mr Stephan ShakespeareAmount sold: 3,350,000 @ 76.50p Value: £2,562,750Close Brothers Group (CBG) Director name: Mr Jonathan HowellAmount sold: 76,890 @ 1,271.32p Value: £977,518Alkane Energy (ALK) Director name: Dr Dr Cameron DaviesAmount sold: 1,000,000 @ 40.00p Value: £400,000Close Brothers Group (CBG) Director name: Mr Elizabeth Lee Amount sold: 18,140 @ 1,270.91p Value: £230,543IG Group Holdings (IGG) Director name: Mr Peter G HetheringtonAmount sold: 10,660 @ 616.00p Value: £65,666Dairy Farm International Holdings Ltd. (Singapore) (DFI) Director name: Mr Michael KokAmount sold: 5,400 @ $11.38 Value: $61,434NR