Insider Trades: Directors are buying shares in these two ASX 200 companies

A summary of S&P/ASX 200 director transactions worth over $10,000 between 4-11 April.

The number of ASX 200 director transactions has progressively declined since February. First it was a bit of a post-reporting season lull, then the US banking crisis but now … could it be the Easter holidays? Earnings and economic headwinds? Or perhaps a seasonal factor?

Top ASX 200 insider buys

Interesting observations

First insider buy of the year: Nickel Industries Managing Director Justin Werner’s trade marks the first insider buy since March 2022. Since then, the stock’s fallen about 30%. The price action for NIC has been pretty volatile – with the stock down -5.7% the day after the insider buy. Followed by a V-shaped 10.6% rally over the next two days.

From a broker perspective, Macquarie retained a Neutral rating for the stock on 30 March with a 92 cent target price. “NIC sees a 25% downgrade in earnings in CY23e due to weaker than previously forecast nickel price,” the note said. Nickel spot prices have fallen around 17% year-to-date to US$22,800 a tonne. 

More buys from New Hope insiders: There’s been six insider buys from New Hope directors so far this year, totaling $4.55 million. This comes amid a turbulent time for Newcastle coal prices, which are trying to stabilise around the US$200 a tonne mark, down from US$400 at the beginning of the year.

Coincidentally, rivals Whitehaven Coal downgraded FY23 guidance on Wednesday, citing labour shortages, congestion and intermittent weather interruptions. The company cut its run-of-mine guidance from 19-20.4 million tonnes to 18-19.2 million tonnes, down 5.6% at the midpoint. The unit cost of production was also downgraded from $95-102 a tonne to $100-107 a tonne, up 5.1% at the midpoint. The announcement whipsawed New Hope shares on Wednesday, which closed 0.5% lower from session lows of -4.3%.