Insider Trades: Directors bought and sold shares in these 7 ASX 200 stocks last week

Welcome back to the Insider Trades Series – A weekly summary of on-market ASX 200 director transactions valued at more than $10,000. The trades have all taken place between 21 and 28 June 2024. Directors have up to 5 business days to notify the ASX of their trades.

Top ASX 200 Insider Buys

Karoon Energy enters value territory: IKaroon Energy's CEO Julian Fowles recently acquired shares amid a 32% stock decline between April 15 and June 20, driven by falling energy prices and an unexpected production downgrade at the newly acquired Who Dat project.

"The Who Dat production downgrade so soon after Karoon over-raised equity for its acquisition is a difficult pill for investors to swallow," Citi analysts said in a note at the time of the announcement.

"The DCF impact of the deferral, under our conservative assumptions, is small so the equity looks cheap. Regardless, it’s the impact to investor trust that is more troublesome as management are already considering the next deal."

To add some perspective around its valuation, Macquarie expects Karoon to return its entire market cap in free cash flow over the next four years. This assumes an average WTI crude oil price of US$80.3, US$68.8 and US$65.7 over 2024/25/26.

Xero's refreshed strategy: Goldman Sachs analysts recently attended Xerocon London, where they engaged with accountants, competitors, and industry experts. Based on the positive feedback received, they reiterated their Buy rating for Xero with a target price of $180. The analysts highlighted the following key takeaways from the event

• "Product strategy resonating, with good products announced at Xerocon in the right focus area ... Given we estimate low single digit payroll penetration, there is significant ARPU upside on increased attach."

• "Price increases are tolerable and becoming expected within the industry, as long as product continues improving."

• "Competitive threats broadly unchanged vs. 2022 in our view, with less noise around Sage/QB."

Top ASX 200 Insider Sells

Wisetech insiders continue to sell at a record clip: Founder Richard White and co-founder Maree Isaacs have sold another $83.5 million worth of shares since 20 June. The selling this year has far outpaced prior years.

• 2024-to-date: $332.5 million

• 2023: $22.7 million

• 2022: $198.5 million

• 2021: $193.2 million

• 2020: $167.1 million

REA's CEO lightens: Chief Executive Owen Wilson recently sold 2,000 shares, worth approximately $388,700, over the past two weeks. This selldown represents only about 4.5% of his total beneficial holdings of 42,657 shares. Interestingly, despite this insider sale, Citi upgraded REA to a Buy rating on June 20, citing the following rationale:

• Australian property listings rose 18% year-on-year in May, led by the highest yielding markets in Sydney and Melbourne. This should in turn see REA report FY24 listings growth towards the top end of its guidance range

• "In our view, REA’s investments on product, data and tech in recent years are now starting to deliver stronger user engagement and we see realEstimate + Owner’s Dashboard (now representing more than 30% of Australian properties) as driving strong seller and mortgage leads and should help revenue per listing to continue to grow."