Insider Trades: 9 directors that bought more shares during reporting season

A summary of director transactions valued at over $50,000 between 20 to 25 February.

Insider buys

Interesting observations

Whitehaven Coal: Half-year dividend miss but earnings in-line

Whitehaven shares whipsawed on half-year FY23 results on 16 February, down -2.8% from session lows of -12.3%. The $1.78bn profit was in-line with consensus expectations of $1.74bn but the dividend was 33% weaker than Macquarie forecasts. Still, the broker reaffirmed an OUTPERFORM rating with a $12.00 target price. "In a spot price scenario, WHC is trading off FCF yields of >25% from FY23 onwards," the analysts noted.

Tabcorp: Ambitious goals for FY25

Half-year FY23 results noted 11% revenue growth to $1.275bn and statutory net profits of $52m which handily beat analyst expectations of $41.2m. Tabcorp also revealed ambitious goals for FY25, targeting 30% digital revenue market share and doubling ROIC.

Chorus: Results in-line

The stock fell -5.3% to a four month low just two days after its half-year results. EBITDA for the first half was NZ$342m, largely unchanged compared to N$347m a year ago and a beat against analyst expectations of $338m. Full-year EBITDA guidance was upgraded to NZ$675-690m compared to prior guidance of NZ$655-675m.

AGL: Directors are loading up

AGL's posted an outsized statutory loss of $1.08bn while underlying net profit fell -55% to $87m. The share price results on results day was in-line with the abysmal result, down 10.3%.

Interestingly, most brokers remain positive on AGL's near-term outlook. For example, UBS expects AGL earnings to more than double by FY24 as tariffs pass -through to higher electricity prices. Among 14 major brokers, 50% were Buy rated and 36% viewed the stock as a Hold.

In line with the view that AGL should experience some earnings tailwinds over the next 2-3 years, there's been a long list of directors buying stock following the half-year result on February 9th.

Source: Market Index

Outsized insider selling

Interesting observations

Bellevue Gold: Steve Parsons reduced his shareholding following a move from Managing Director to Non-executive Director. This follows some management changes in preparation for the company's transition to production and cashflow. He retains approximately 17 million shares after last week's sale.