Insider Trades: 9 ASX 200 directors bought 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 26 and 29 October. Directors have up to 5 business days to notify the ASX of their trades.

Insider trading picked up last week for the first time since reporting season, with several directors buying alongside each other. Four more Zip directors bought the dip, while Telix Pharmaceuticals and Ora Banda Mining each had two directors buy.

Top ASX 200 insider buys

Four Zip directors buy after 43% year-to-date slide

Zip (ZIP) has fallen 43% year-to-date, with a plenty of massive one-day declines in between.

• 19 February (-34%) The 1H26 result missed ests on revenue and earnings, with bad debts rising and US growth slower than analysts expected

• 20 August (-15%) FY26 profit hit a record, but bad debts rose again and FY27 guidance pointed to slower earnings growth

• 23 October (-29.5%) The first-quarter update disclosed an external fraud incident in the US that disrupted customer acquisition. Zip shares briefly dipped as much as 50.5% to $1.02 on the day

After the latest dip, UBS cut its target to $4.05 from $4.40 in a 23 October note but kept its Buy rating. The analysts said the sell-off was an overreaction and expecting momentum to improve in the second quarter, with US volume growth accelerating in September and the fraud likely contained. The stock has subsequently rebounded 75% from the intraday low of $1.02 to trade at around $1.80.

Four Zip directors bought the dip, paying between $1.54 and $1.73 a share.

• Non-Executive Director Andrew Stevens bought 100,000 shares, lifting his holding to 253,667 and adding to buys in September, December and February

• Matthew Schuyler, a director since October 2024, and Sarah Adam-Gedge, who joined the board in September, made their first on-market purchases of 84,000 and 61,750 shares respectively, with Schuyler previously holding only 24,195 restricted rights under the director equity plan

• Non-Executive Chair Diane Smith-Gander bought 20,550 shares through her super fund, lifting her holding from 252,365 to 272,915

Telix CEO and non exec Chairman buy the dip along with

It’s been a tale of two halves for the ASX healthcare sector this year, transitioning from one of the worst performing sectors on the market to leading a powerful recovery from June onwards. The index plunged roughly 32% in the first five months before staging a 52% turnaround led by earnings beats at CSL and Cochlear during reporting season, albeit against low expectations, along with a rotation into defensives as inflation persists and more RBA hikes loom.

Telix Pharmaceuticals (TLX) has, however, bucked the wider trend, with its share price up 19% year-to-date and 52% above its mid-February low. Its FY25 result on 20 February beat the top end of upgraded revenue guidance and showed adjusted EBITDA of US$39.5 million despite a small statutory loss on heavy R&D spending, sending the shares up 14% on the day.

While it posted positive first-half results that saw its share price bounce 3.5% on 20 August, a soft third-quarter update on 21 October sent its shares down 7.9%. UBS kept its Buy rating and $26 target in a 21 October note, calling the fall overdone and saying the weakness reflected expectations of a guidance upgrade, after Telix reiterated revenue guidance at the upper end of US$950-970 million. The stock has kept falling since to sit 17% below where it was the day before the update, at around $13 a share.

Two Telix directors bought into that decline.

• Managing Director and CEO Christian Behrenbruch bought 38,750 shares on-market through his family trust, beneficial ownership to 21.4m

• Non-Executive Chairman David Gill, who joined the board in May, bought 3,250 ADRs on the Nasdaq, each representing one ordinary share, lifting his holding from 22,000 to 25,250. It is his third on-market purchase since joining, after buying 10,200 in June and 11,800 in September.

Two Ora Banda directors buy after quarterly sell-off

Ora Banda Mining (OBM) shares are down 20% year-to-date against a 10% fall in the S&P/ASX All Ordinaries Gold index, while the gold miner spends heavily on its aspiration to double production to 300,000 ounces a year by FY29.

The stock tanked 16.5% on 23 October after a weak September quarter, with an extended mill shutdown and wet weather cutting production and pushing all-in sustaining costs up 9% to A$4,214/oz.

FY27 guidance was unchanged, and the company ended the quarter with $207 million in cash after spending $133.7 million on exploration and growth. Macquarie used the fall to upgrade the stock to Outperform from Neutral, cutting its target to $1.30 from $1.50. The broker says production is still on track for guidance, but cost guidance could be out of reach after the soft first quarter.

Two Non-Executive directors are buying the dip, including:

• John Richards, who joined the board in May, bought 100,000 shares, lifting his holding to 220,000 after his first purchase in June

• Director Kathryn Cutler, on the board since July 2024, bought 95,151 shares, having previously held none.

Both buys follow the board replacing equity in director fees with minimum shareholding guidelines from 1 July.