Insider trades: Directors bought shares in these 25 ASX companies last week

Welcome back to the Insider Trades Series – A summary of on-market director trades valued at more than $10,000 between 7 August and 14 August 2023.

Today's list of small- and mid-cap director transactions is the longest we've featured in a while, reflecting the pickup in activity that is particularly apparent among firms that have now handed down either their quarterly figures and/or their FY2023 results. (Which is why we're back to splitting out the small and larger caps - you can find the latter here, thanks to Market Index's Kerry Sun.)

Big buy at diamond digger

In small- and mid-caps, the largest one-off transaction of the period saw just under a-quarter-of-a-million-dollars’ worth of explorer Lucapa Diamond Company’s (ASX: LOM) stock bought by non-executive director Ross Stanley on 7 August.

Lucapa Diamond's 12-month share price (Source: Market Index)

Jeff Kennett siphons up micro-cap juice stock

Last week saw a raft of multiple buys from inside the same companies, with 11 instances involving one or more directors.

Perhaps the highest profile individual was Jeffrey Kennett, who served as Victorian Premier between 1992 and 1999 and two stints as president of the Hawthorn AFL club (2005-2011 and 2017-2022). Kennett siphoned up $50,000 worth of The Original Juice Co. stock last week, a $24 million market cap company that he joined as chairman in March, buying one $25,000 parcel of shares on 8 August and another on 9 August.

Kennett is reportedly set on helping turn around the fortunes of the company, which recently rebranded from Food Revolution Group and owns the third-largest juice brand in Australia. It reported 30% revenue growth of $14.5 million in Q4 FY23.

Original Juice Co's 12-month share price (Source: Market Index)

Trading picks up inside resources juniors

Plenty of stock buying occurred inside resources juniors, too, including at Tamboran Resources (ASX: TBN), Patriot Lithium (ASX: PAT), Odessa Minerals (ASX: ODE), Nico Resources (ASX: NC1), Nelson Resources (ASX: NES), Elementos (ASX: ELT) and Atlantic Lithium (ASX: A11).

The largest of these saw more than $216,000 worth of stock acquired by Neil Herbert, Amanda Harsas, and Lennard van Oosterwijk – the respective chairman, finance director and head of business development at West African-based explorer Atlantic Lithium.

Atlantic's 12-month share price (Source: Market Index)

North American-focused explorer Patriot Lithium also saw just under $70,000 worth of stock bought by four directors – chairman Phil Thick, MD and CEO Nicholas Vickery, executive director Matt Gauci and technical director Oliver Kreuzer.

Patriot Lithium's 12-month share price (Source: Market Index)

Tamboran Resources director David Siegel acquired $108,000 worth of the natural gas explorer’s stock in two separate transactions on 8 August and 14 August.

Tamboran's 12-month share price (Source: Market Index)