The New Hope Corporation Ltd (ASX: NHC) share price is under pressure again on Thursday.
In morning trade, the coal miner's shares are down 3% to $5.97.
This latest decline means that New Hope shares are now down 20% from their October high.
Is the pullback in the New Hope share price a buying opportunity?
One person who appears to see recent weakness as an opportunity to invest is the coal miner's non-executive director, Ian Williams.
According to a change of director's interests notice, Williams has been buying shares on market since the release of the company's FY 2023 results.
The notice reveals that Williams picked up 10,000 New Hope shares through an on-market trade on Wednesday for an average of $6.16 per share. This equates to a total consideration of $61,600.
Williams wasn't holding any New Hope shares prior to today, so this purchase reflects his entire interest now.
What are brokers saying?
Unfortunately, the broker community isn't in a rush to recommend investors buy the company's shares.
For example, in response to its results, Citi and Macquarie both put the equivalent of sell ratings on its shares with price targets of $4.20 and $5.50, respectively. This implies a potential downside of 30% and 8.5% for the New Hope share price.
Citi commented:
We believe the recent thermal coal price rally on LNG strikes is overdone and thermal demand should weaken into shoulder season
Goldman Sachs is even more bearish and has a sell rating and an incredibly low price target of $3.30 on its shares.
All in all, these brokers appear to believe that investors should hold out for a better entry point rather than follow this director's lead.
