Directors' Trades: It is ever too late to jump on the bandwagon?

A number of big trades among ASX small cap directors came from sectors or companies that have seen solid momentum in recent months.

Many directors are among the first to take a leap of faith in their company and reap the rewards along with early shareholders.

One buyer was Philip Dubois from diagnostic imaging provider EMVision (ASX:EMV).

His company listed at 20 cents back in 2018 and has gained over 900 per cent since then off the back of clinical trial success.

Dubois only joined EMVision last month but bought $100,000 within days of his appointment. He is a radiology professor and is also on the board of healthcare giant Sonic (ASX:SHL).

Code	Company	Director	Change	Date	Volume	$	What
CCA	Change Financial	Harley Dalton	Buy	23 September	1,500,000	$190,000	On market
HLA	Healthia	Anthony Ganter	Buy	28 September	249,730	$247,732	Dividend Reinvestment plan
EOS	Electro Optic Systems	Ian Dennis	Sell	30 September	25,000	$145,000	On market
NVX	Novonix	Robert Natter	Sell	14 July	407,500	$411,166	On market
BBX	BBX Minerals	William Dix	Sell	29 September	367,401	$183,701	On market
EMV	EMvision Medical Devices	Philip Dubois	Buy	1 October	40,000	$100,000	Off market
REE	RareX	John Young	Buy	1 October	2,000,000	$100,000	Placement
HAS	Hastings Technology Metals	Charles Lew	Buy	1 October	5,134,500	$734,234	Placement
ICT	iCollege	Ashish Katta	Sell	2 October	16,500,000	$990,000	Off market
NXS	Next Science	Bruce Hancox	Buy	2 October	154,330	$190,212	On market
CNJ	Conico	James Richardson	Buy	2 October	9,122,918	$127,721	Rights Issue
CNJ	Conico	Douglas Solomon	Buy	2 October	8,400,288	$117,604	Rights Issue
CAI	Calidus Resources	David Reeves	Buy	5 October	275,000	$154,500	On market
TFL	TasFoods	Ben Swain	Buy	2 October	2,502,941	$212,750	Rights Issue
KPG	Kelly Partners Group	Brett Kelly	Sell	1 October	344,417	$413,300	Off market
VVA	Viva Leisure	Mark McConnell	Sell	2 October	1,000,000	$2,300,000	Off market
NTM	NTM Gold	Michael Ruane	Buy	6 October	2,065,000	$186,524	On market
AV1	Adveritas	Mark McConnell	Buy	7 October	26,666,667	$2,000,000	Placement
MGT	Magnetite Mines	Peter Schubert	Buy	6 October	15,000,000	$150,000	Rights Issue
CHN	Chalice Gold Mines	Morgan Ball	Sell	7 October	250,000	$700,251	On market
TPW	Temple & Webster	Stephen Heath	Sell	31 August	150,000	$1,387,845	On market

Buyers

Two other ASX directors trades were in rare earths companies. The sector has lived in the shadow of gold for much of 2020 but many received a boost from President Trump’s executive order calling for more domestic rare earths production.

The US currently imports 80 per cent of its rare earth elements from China but is keen to change that.

While inevitably, the small caps with US-based projects will be first in line, stocks with Australian projects have seen a boost too.

John Young of RareX (ASX:REE) snapped up $100,000 in stock. His company recently acquired a project near Australia’s only rare earths mine – owned by producer Lynas (ASX:LYC) – and is preparing to drill next month.

Another was Charles Lew of Hastings (ASX:HAS) who chipped in $734,000 in a $14.6 million placement. His company is preparing to commence construction at its own project next year.

A number of gold buyers were on the list too in spite of spot prices stagnating in recent weeks.

James Richardson and Douglas Solomon from Greenland-focused Conico (ASX:CNJ) both put in $100,000 each.

Calidus Resources (ASX:CAI), which is aspiring to become a producer next year, saw David Reeves buy $154,500 on market.

And Michael Ruane from NTM Gold (ASX:NTM) bought $186,524 of shares in his own company, also on market.

There were few ASX directors’ trades in other sectors this week. But one notable trade was a $190,212 on market purchase by Bruce Hancox into Next Science (ASX:NXS).

His company is hoping to commercially launch its bug-killing surgical rinse into the US in the first half of next year.

Sellers

One of the biggest winners in the last 12 months is furniture store Temple & Webster (ASX:TPW) – up over 600 per cent in that time frame. It’s been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the ecommerce boom.

Stephen Heath sold $1.38 million in shares on market back on August 31 but this was only disclosed to the market last week.

This was the same day that its managing director Mark Coulter Temple & Webster (ASX:TPW) sold over $24m in shares to pay a tax bill.

Citadel Group (ASX:CGL) founder Mark McConnell sold $2.3 million in shares in Viva Leisure (ASX:VVA).

While Viva Leisure did not give an explanation to shareholders, he ended up buying $2 million of shares in ad-tech stock Adveritas (ASX:AV1) only a few days later.