Purplebricks’ chief marketing officer has sold a large chunk of shares in the online agent, turning a very quick profit in the process.

Joby Russell sold the 243,618 shares shares last Friday at 140p per share, netting him £341,065.

He had owned the shares for just ten days, exercising an option to buy them at 12.93p, costing him a total of £31,499.

In ten days he therefore made a profit of £309,566 – equating to £30,956 per day for ten days.

Analysts at Jefferies, who continue to give Purplebricks an ‘underperform’ rating, yesterday sent out a note to investors headed: “Selling shares quicker than they sell homes.”

It noted that the shares were sold on the same day that LSL, the UK’s second largest estate agency, issued a profits warning.

Jefferies said: “We were surprised that Mr Russell, who describes PB as ‘the UK’s most remarkable estate agency and one of the country’s fastest growing businesses’ sold 243,618 shares at 140p, having only exercised the options on those shares on 12 July at a price of 12.93p.

“His holding period of ten days is therefore four days fewer than the average time (of 14 days) it takes PB to find a buyer for its customers’ homes.”

Russell was previously marketing director at comparison site Confused.com before moving to Purplebricks in June last year. He had already been a non-executive director at Purplebricks.

Since the share sale, he is said to retain a “substantial” interest in Purplebricks.

The biggest shareholder in Purplebricks is star fund manager Neil Woodford, owning 28.6% through Woodford Investment Management