Insider Trades: Directors are offloading their shares as Aussie share market comes off the boil

Welcome back to the Insider Trades Series – A weekly summary of on-market ASX director transactions valued at more than $10,000. The trades have all taken place between 19 and 30 April 2024. Directors have up to 5 business days to notify the ASX of their trades.

WiseTech: Seasonal selldown

As noted in our previous update, Wisetech's CEO and founder Richard White has sold approximately $600 million worth of shares since 2020. He has the tendency to sell during the first and fourth quarter of every calendar year. Despite offloading what seems like a large portion of his ownership, he still owns approximately 39% of the company. The bottom line – big numbers – but nothing much to see here!

In any event, it seems fellow director Lisa Brock is doing her best to soak up some of the liquidity. Brock’s directorship became effective 1 February 2024. It’s always good for shareholders to see a director get some skin in the game so early in their tenure.

GDI Property Group: Adding to positions

GDI Property Group (GDI) is an ASX listed property owner and fund manager. The company describes itself as an integrated, internally managed property and funds management group with capabilities in ownership, management, refurbishment, leasing and syndication of office properties. GDI has two operating segments, property and funds management.

Director Stephen Geoffrey Burns has increased his holdings in the company with the acquisition of 100,000 stapled securities on-market for a total consideration of $60,067.

Idp Education: Buying on weakness

Research has shown that insiders are adept at buying when their stocks is “cheap”, and that they are far more likely to be buying towards 52-week lows than 52-week highs. The Idp Education (ASX: IEL) share price has been hammered over the past 12 months, falling from around $26, to sub $16 at last close. So then, does this scenario match the classic insiders buying near the lows phenomena? Time will tell!

IEL 1-year chart

Big hitters of note

Most of the larger transactions in the period were sells, led by the managing director of Brickworks, Lindsay Partridge. Viva Energy CEO, Scott Wyatt – who has been with the company for more than three decades (Viva and Shell before it), also sold a sizeable parcel.

The remaining insider trades