Insider Trades: Directors are selling shares in these 2 ASX companies (and 6 other buys)

Welcome back to the Insider Trades series, a summary of director transactions that have taken place between 21 to 28 April worth more than $10,000.

We typically look at insider activity for S&P/ASX 200 companies but activity has been relatively quiet since late March. This time round we included insider transactions for companies that have a market cap of more than $300 million.

Top Insider Transactions

Interesting Observations

Sayona Directors have been net sellers

Sayona’s Managing Director Brett Lynch and Non-executive Director Allan Buckler have been exercising options and selling shares for around two years. Their selling prices have varied from around 5 cents in 2021 to 36 cents in late 2022.

Both directors still hold a substantial amount of company shares: Lynch (164 million) and Buckler (approximately 105 million).

Sayona shares are down 36% year-to-date and despite some ups and downs, have gone nowhere since March 2022. 

Sell into the takeover bid

Mincor directors offloaded a collective $1.8 million in shares on Wednesday, 26 April.

The company received a takeover offer from its majority shareholder Wyloo Metals (owns 61.6% of Mincor as of 2 May 2023) in March for $1.40 per share or a 34.6% premium to pre-offer levels. The stock has been trading at the takeover price since late March.

Perhaps they are of the expectation that this will be as good as it gets and that there will be no sweeter bids. 

Mincor price chart (Source: Market Index)

New Hope directors: Buy, buy and buy

If you head to the ‘Director Transactions’ section on the New Hope company page – You’ll notice 26 consecutive Buy transactions between November 2021 to date, eight of which have occurred in the last five weeks.

Newcastle coal futures are down around 53% year-to-date to US$187 a tonne. So is there more than meets the eye?

New Hope 12-month price chart (Source: Market Index)

XRF Scientific: That’s a brave buy

XRF manufactures equipment and chemicals for sectors including production mines, construction material companies and commercial analytical laboratories. The $170m market cap stock is up 45% year-to-date and up 75% in the last twelve months. 

The company released a March quarter report on 14 April which noted revenue and profit growth of 43% and 30% respectively.

“We expect the June 2023 quarter to be positive for all divisions.  During this period our key focus areas are increasing our production capacity for machines, new product developments, international sales growth, and M&A opportunities,” the company said in a statement. 

Over the next three days, the stock would rally as much as 32% to $1.42.

Director David Brown bought the first pullback – $12,500 worth of shares at $1.25 – marking the company’s first insider buy since October 2022.

XRF 12-month price chart (Source: Market Index)