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Welcome to HotCopper’s Director Trades column, where we take a look at all the most interesting director transactions from across the past week and break down the details. This week, we’ll look at September 4-10.
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Directors legally have five business days to notify the ASX of their trades, so some transactions may be recorded after this article was written and published.
1. WiseTech Global
By far the biggest transaction through our date range came from a director who’s hit headlines plenty over the last year: Richard White, WiseTech Global (ASX:WTC) founder, sold a huge $69 million package this week.
Mr White shipped away 703,000 shares in his company, at $98.17 each, leaving him with zero direct shares – though he still carries 119.7 million total.
WiseTech tanked after its earnings call early this month, which was helmed by new CEO Zubin Apoo (though he was flanked by White). They heralded a “strong” company several times, but holders weren’t convinced.
Whether Mr White was could now fairly be questioned, too, considering he waited just a single day before shedding what he was holding in WiseTech.
WTC has been $96.20/sh on Friday morning.
2. COG Financial Services
Over in the financials sector, Cameron McCullagh has just recently sold a fairly major COG Financial Services (ASX:COG) equity package.
For his sale, where he shipped away 10 million shares in the finance broker aggregator and equipment leasing company, Mr McCullagh netted back $19.5 million. He made the on-market sale at $1.95/sh last Friday.
Interestingly, non-executive director John Dwyer actually went the other way just a few days before, scooping up $469K in the stock at $1.87 each.
COG’s not one that’s been on this HotCopper journalist’s radar – not when there’s juicy stories like 4DMedical (ASX:4DX) and New Murchison Gold (ASX:NMG) to cover – but the biggest news for the company is pretty cool: It just picked up Easy Fleet for $40 million, which is expected to “expand its influence across several Australian states and territories through its subsidiary, Paywise.”
It didn’t move the dial much stock-wise, though; COG is still $2 today.
3. Neuren Pharmaceuticals
Rounding out the podium in director trades this week is Jon Pilcher’s sale of Neuren Pharmaceuticals (ASX:NEU) stock. Mr Pilcher sold nearly 400,000 equities at $20 each, pocketing $7.9 million after the Monday deal.
It’s been a volatile year for Neuren all up, with swings coming every other week – a perfect example coming with its -4.7% dip this week, but +8% monthly gains.
Maybe Mr Pilcher really just wanted to get off the ride a little, though he’s nowhere near exited the building; even after shipping away this bundle, the Neuren chief still carries around 1.5M shares in the company.
Catching up
The biggest trade made outside our Sep. 4-10 range this week came from Activeport Group (ASX:ATV), where Peter Cristie sold $297,215 shares in the software company in an off-market trade on Wednesday, Sep. 3.
That’s this week’s Director Trades – we’ll be back with more next Thursday.
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