Insider Trades: Directors bought and sold shares in these 8 ASX 200 companies last week

Welcome back to the Insider Trades Series – A weekly summary of on-market ASX 200 director transactions valued at more than $10,000. The trades have all taken place between 27 March and 5 April 2024. Directors have up to 5 business days to notify the ASX of their trades.

The dividend darling

Washington H Soul Pattinson is the closest investment vehicle that Australia has to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, with a diverse portfolio spanning across equities, private credit and more.

Over the past 24 years, Soul Patts has increased its dividend at a compound annual growth rate of 9.6%. It's latest half-year FY24 result (announced 21 March) bumped its interim dividend to 40 cents per share, up 11% year-on-year.

Some of the key takeaways from the company's half-year result include:

• High turnover in investments is a strategic move to achieve best risk-adjusted returns, not random churn.

• Ownership in Perpetual is just under 15%, viewed as a long-term investment with latent value.

• The company sees global energy demand increasing significantly, with opportunities in various energy sources including coal and renewables.

• The credit portfolio predominantly invests in Australian businesses with an average duration of 2.5 years and weighted yield around 15%.

• The company sees Australia's agriculture sector as globally competitive and seeks to institutionalise farms for improved efficiency and risk reduction.

• You can watch our interview with CEO Todd Barlow here

The stock eased around 5% in the four sessions that followed the half-year result. Chairman Robert Millner has been buying into the weakness, purchasing a collective $35.1 million or 520,000 shares in the past week. He beneficially owns 23.35 million shares in the company.

Top ASX 200 insider buys

Here are the remaining buys. Coincidentally, they all happen to be Non-Executive Directors.

Selling into strength

Fund administrators have been running hot since the market bottomed in late October, benefiting from prospects of improved flows and bullish equity markets. Names like Netwealth and Hub24 are both up more than 40% in the past six months.

This has resulted in selldowns from Joint Managing Directors Matthew Heine and Michael Heine as well as Non-Executive Directors Timothy Antonie and Davyd Lewis.

"Given the attractive outlook for flows and equity markets, wealth platforms have re-rated recently. We believe NWL is a quality business with structural tailwinds, but at 47.5x NTM P/E and a 3-year PEG ratio of ~2.3x, we cannot get there on valuation," Macquarie said in a note dated 21 February. The analysts retained an Underperform rating with a $15.30 target price.

Top ASX 200 insider sells

Here are the remaining sells. The insiders from Car Group and Audinate are both Non-Executive Directors. Whereas Adrian Gleeson is an Executive Director at Johns Lyng.