Insider Trades: Directors are buying shares in these 14 ASX small caps

Welcome back to the Insider Trades Series – Director transactions have been relatively quiet across large caps so we're going to recap small-to-mid cap trades that have taken place between 22-28 September, valued at more than $20,000.

Top small-to-mid cap transactions

Is this a new chapter for Bravura? Shares in the software player have been on a downward spiral. Between August 2021 and March 2023, it fell as much as 92% following a series of shocking trading updates and earnings downgrades, a steep capital raise (6 March 2023: $23 million at a 53% discount), and abrupt management changes.

But maybe, just maybe, things are starting to stabilise. The stock rallied 44% on the day of its FY23 result, which noted:

• Achieved guidance across all metrics

• Trading performance has "driven the requirement and urgency for change," with a new CEO, Chair and refreshed board joining in the second half of FY23

• Organisational change program set to be completed ahead of schedule by June 2024 which includes total annualised savings of $40 million

• Forecast to achieve positive cash EBITDA run rate by the end of FY24

• Finished FY23 with $75.7 million cash

Bravura Solutions 12-month price chart (Source: Market Index)

Insiders including CEO Andrew Russell, Non-executive Director Damien Leonard (his private equity fund Pinetree Capital took a 19% stake in the company in March 2023) and Chairman Matthew Quinn have all been buying shares since late August.

4DS Memory insiders sell into strength: Shares in the semiconductor development company rallied as much as 140%, to 16 cents, on 23 August after announcing a major milestone, which included the following highlights:

• 4DS is developing ReRAM technology, a type of non-volatile memory, which means that it retains its data even when the power is turned off

• It's developing a new type of ReRAM called Interface Switching ReRAM (IS-ReRAM), which has the potential to be faster and more durable than existing ReRAM technologies

• The announcement says that the company successfully transferred all of its new process improvements and learning cycles developed at the Stanford Nanofabrication Facility into imec's (a leading semiconductor research and development company) megabit array

• The milestone demonstrates that the IS-ReRAM is compatible with imec's manufacturing process

Another major milestone announcement on 18 September pushed the stock to a brief, two-year high of 21.5 cents. But it has been nothing but weakness ever since, with the stock closing at 12 cents on Wednesday, 5 October.

4DS Memory 6-month price chart (Source: Market Index)

Non-executive Director Guido Arnout has been exercising 4-5 cent options and then selling a big portion of those freshly minted shares on-market.