Directors’ Trades: Which big bank directors topped up their holdings this past fortnight?

Only a few weeks after big bank Westpac (ASX:WBC) downgraded its profit, two directors took a leap of faith by purchasing shares on market.

Westpac downgraded its profit expectations by $1.3 million and it predominantly blamed a $965 million write down of assets following an annual impairment test.

Its shares have dropped 13% over the past month and it is the only big bank to be below its mid-February 2020 peak.

But three of the company’s directors betted on the company to bounce back. John McFarlane bought $115,911, Audette Excel bought $101,015 and Michael Hawker bought $198,881. All three bought on market.

Other buyers

A significant portion of directors who bought came from the coal and gold sectors.

New Hope (ASX:NWH) directors Thomas and Robert Millner both chipped in with $191,930 being bought indirectly and Robert buying another $120,450 directly and $199,270 indirectly.

Aurizon (ASX:AUZ), which is in the industry as a coal transportation firm, had two directors open their wallets. First Timothy Poole who bought $153,000, and a few days later Andrew Harding who bought $3.4 million.

Peter Tomsett from gold miner Newcrest (ASX:NCM) bought just over $500,000 on market.

At the other end of the gold industry, explorer Labyrinth (ASX:LRL) had three directors buy into a placement, although just one, Ross Graham, exceeded $100,000, purchasing $480,000.

Brian Rodan from Siren Gold (ASX:SNG) bought $124,444 in a capital raising while Norman Seckold from Sky Metals (ASX:SKY) bought $133,555 on market.

Other commodities saw a handful of purchases too, including from Lake Resources’ (ASX:LKE) Nicholas Lindsay who bought $637,267 on market and David Brooks from lime explorer Dominion Minerals (ASX:DLM) who bought $2.5 million as part of the reverse takeover which saw it list.

Sellers

Last week the takeover of Empired (ASX:EPD) finally went ahead and all directors sold their shares with the biggest two being Russell Baskerville who parted with $18.9 million and John Bardwell who sold $5.8 million.

There were two sales over $40 million – first Gary Fisher from Objective Corp (ASX:OCL). The second came from Michael Anghie of recent listee APM Human Services (ASX:APM).

The latter trade was part of a selldown as part of the IPO and three other APM directors also participated, with the next biggest being Megan Wynne who sold over $30 million.

Newcrest (ASX:NCM) directors Sandeep Biswas and Gerard Bond sold $468,411 and $154,337 respectively – both to pay a tax liability rising as a result of the release of ordinary shares under Newcrest’s Employee Share Scheme.

Anthony Rozic from real estate investor Goodman Group (ASX:GMG) parted with just over $8 million in shares in an on market trade.