ASX Director Trades: Wisetech founder Richard White keeps cashing in as acquisition talk swirls

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• Rural Funds Group Managing director David Bryant has ponied up for  ~$1 million of stock
• Several company directors selling stock with announcements saying it’s to pay tax liabilities
• Wisetech Global founder Richard White continues large sell down of stock with talk of acquisition 

Director trades are often considered a good indicator of a company’s future prospects. Our fortnightly ASX Director Trades column informs you who is buying in and who is selling down. Often referred to as insider buying or selling, directors are legally permitted to buy and sell shares of the company and any subsidiaries. However, these transactions must be properly registered and divulged.

Insider buying or selling is not to be confused with insider trading, which is buying shares based on non-public information, a big no-no and illegal.

We troll through the ASX company announcements looking at director trades of interest over the past fortnight. It’s usually the big ones that stand out or those coinciding with company news.

Directors may get shares as part of employee incentive schemes, share purchase plans, rights issues, participate in dividend reinvestment plans or purchase on-market. It’s the on-market trades we think are worth noting, where directors directly or indirectly through entities they are associated either put up cash or cash in a stake.

When a director buys shares on-market, it can signify confidence the share price will rise in the future and if multiple directors are buying, especially at larger amounts, that is even more of an indication. Of course, it’s not a sure win that the share price will rise, so it’s always worth further research on a company.

Directors will often buy company shares after a sharp price decrease. Directors may think the stock has been oversold and represents good value, sometimes they want to show confidence in their company’s prospects, other times they’ve just got another good reason to buy or sell a stock which will be divulged, like paying the good ol’ taxman.

Weekly overview

Markets have remained as volatile as the Queensland storm season throughout 2022 with US inflation figures last week spooking global equities. On Wednesday ~$60 billion was wiped off the ASX following sharp falls on Wall Street as investors assume there are more hefty rate hikes to come.

There were more sharp falls on the ASX on Friday with the S&P/ASX 200 ending the week more than 2% down with all sectors in the red. Leading the laggards was the health care and real estate sectors.

The S&P/ASX 200 continued its falls on Monday, down ~0.3% to its lowest level in two months.

Recent director large buys

Rural Funds Group (ASX:RFF) managing director David Bryant has ponied up for ~$1 million worth of shares.  According to its website RFF owns a diversified portfolio of Australian agricultural assets which are predominantly leased to corporate agricultural operators.

The RFF share price has fallen ~19% year-to-date.

IperionX (ASX:IPX) executive chairman Todd Hannigan is bullish on the stock. IPX’s breakthrough titanium technologies have potential to produce titanium products which are sustainable, 100% recyclable, low carbon intensity and at product qualities exceeding current industry standards.

IPX holds a 100% interest in the Titan Project, located in Tennessee, a very large titanium resource in North America which is also rich in rare earth minerals.

Hannigan bought $576,291 worth of stock. The IPX share price is down ~3% year to date.

Founder and chairman of listed investment group Thorney Technologies (ASX:TEK), billionaire investor Alex Waislitz, continued to top up his holdings in a series of trades.

Recent large ASX sells – Paying the ol’ taxman

It must be the time of year where directors are finalising their tax returns. Several directors have sold large parcels of shares noting it was to pay tax liabilities.

Lithium miner Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) has seen managing director and CEO Dale Henderson, non-executive chairman Anthony Kiernan AM, and non-executive director Nicholas Cernotta all sell up shares in the stock recently.

Henderson’s sale of more than $5.5 million worth of stock was “on-market trade related to the (part) satisfaction of tax obligations”, according to the ASX announcement.

Henderson  also had 1,259,999 unlisted options vested and exercised pursuant to a cashless exercise facility under the company’s employee award plan, resulting in the issue of 1,131,329 ordinary shares, and cessation of 128,670 unlisted options, the announcement noted.

The PLS share price has risen more than 30% year to date.

Breville Group (ASX:BRG) CEO and managing director James Clayton has sold down more than $1 million worth of stock. In an ASX announcement the company said “Mr Clayton has sold 47,000 shares to satisfy personal tax obligations in relation to the vesting of performance and deferred share rights”.

Strandline Resources (ASX:STA) CEO and managing director Luke Graham recently sold down a large parcel of shares.  In the ASX announcement, STA said the on market trade was to “fund a personal tax liability resulting from the vesting of shares issued under the company’s long term incentive plan.”

“Mr Graham has no further intentions to sell any Strandline shares in the near term, other than to potentially fund tax liabilities associated with the vesting of additional performance rights and remains fully committed to the long-term goals and growth of the company.”

Following the sale of the shares, Graham continues to have a significant equity interest in STA, including an interest in 13,000,962 Fully Paid Ordinary Shares and 4,130,574 Unvested Performance Rights.

STA recently secured a $US26m ($43.3m) finance facility to develop the Fungoni mineral sands project in Tanzania. The company’s share price is up 75% year to date.

Other sells worth noting

Looks like WiseTech (ASX: WTC) founder, executive director and CEO Richard White is continuing his large large sell-down in the company he founded in 1994 and listed on the ASX in 2016.

As Stockhead’s Gregor Stronach pointed out recently the company has responded to media speculation of a potential acquisition. Wisetech provides software solutions to the logistics industry.

The WTC share price has fallen ~7% year to date.

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