Insider Trades: 5 ASX 200 directors bought and sold these 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 below trades have all taken place between 7 and 16 October. Directors have up to 5 business days to notify the ASX of their trades.

Director transactions that meet the threshold remained relatively thin this past week, but sizeable trades were made by non-executive directors at Qantas and Lifestyle Communities.

A Qantas Non-Exec buys the dip

Qantas Airways has had a resilient year against a long list of external pressures. Its FY26 result had revenue up 7.1% to $25.52 billion, but underlying profit before tax fell 14% to $2.06 billion, reflecting higher fuel costs (up 14% to $5.7 billion), the fallout of the US-Iran war, weak consumer confidence and RBA rate hikes. The stock is down 16.8% year-to-date, not far from 18-month lows.

This is where Non-Executive Director Alison Watkins started to pick up shares, almost tripling her holding via two separate transactions last week. She purchased 47,200 shares in total and lifted her beneficial ownership from 24,000 to 71,200 shares. Watkins has only been on the board since March, so her exposure is coming off a rather low base. More recently, Ord Minnett cut its target price to $10.90 from $12.00 on 13 October, citing a more than 20% rise in jet fuel prices since Qantas’ August guidance, but kept its Buy rating as it expects earnings to rebound in FY28 as fuel costs are recouped and higher airfares are embedded.

Qantas shares are highly sensitive to oil prices, and as the chart below shows, the two have a strong inverse relationship.

QAN vs Brent price chart (Source: TradingView)

Lifestyle Communities Non-exec chair buys near 9-year low

Lifestyle Communities has been trending lower since February 2024, down around 80%. The latest major blow was on 9 July 2025, when VCAT declared the company's resale-price-based fee model illegal under the Residential Tenancies Act 1997. The company tried to appeal the verdict, which was officially dismissed in August 2026, and Lifestyle Communities later said it would not pursue any further legal appeals and launched a refund program. The latest FY26 result marked a sharp turnaround, with net profit after tax of $46.9 million from a $195.3 million loss in FY25, while net debt fell 40% to $273.7 million.

This is where Non-Executive Chair David Blight is buying, more than doubling his holding with an on-market purchase of 51,587 shares last week and lifting his shareholding from 50,000 to 101,587. Blight has been on the board since 2018 and chair since 2024, including a short stint in an executive role after co-founder James Kelly retired in 2025. His purchase came four days after a Q1 FY27 update showed new home net sales dropped 22% to 39 and established home sales 11.9% to 37 on the same quarter last year, while net debt fell a further $8.4 million to $265.3 million. The first DMF refunds to eligible former homeowners are due in late October, against a $77.1 million provision.

"Following the strong recovery in sales achieved during FY26, sales activity moderated during Q1 FY27 as prospective customers took longer to progress their downsizing decisions in a more measured Victorian housing market," noted the company.

UBS rates the stock Neutral with a $5.70 price target in a 9 October note, flagging that Q1 settlements of 42 homes annualise to 168, which is 47% below consensus FY27 forecasts of 247.

Other notable ASX 200 insider trades

Top ASX 200 insider sells

Breville non-executive director Dean Howell sold 10,000 shares on 13 October, about a fifth of his holding. The sale comes roughly three weeks before he retires from the board at the 5 November AGM after 18 years at the company. Breville reported record FY26 revenue of $1.81 billion in August, up 6.7%, while EBIT rose 1.2% to $207 million, which the company said reflected tariffs, the cost of shifting manufacturing out of China, oil-led inflation and higher investment in growth. Shares are up 5% year-to-date but down 10% since 10 August.

Macquarie kept its Outperform rating and $37.10 price target in a 2 September note, forecasting FY27 EBIT growth of 10.6% to $228.9 million, with coffee, new markets and new products as the main growth drivers. Howell still holds 40,000 shares through the Questor Superannuation Fund.