October's Biggest Insider Buys Were Mostly Not What They Look Like

A thin month for buying, a heavy month for selling

October 2026 produced about $1.98 billion of insider purchases across 939 filings and 408 companies, against $13.49 billion of insider sales, according to Quantisnow's index built from SEC filings. For every dollar insiders bought, roughly $6.80 was sold. That imbalance is normal: insiders sell for many reasons, from taxes to diversification to pre-set trading plans. The old market saying, usually credited to investor Peter Lynch, puts it the other way round: insiders might sell for many reasons, but they buy for only one. Buying is therefore the side of the ledger investors watch, and October's buying deserves a closer look, because the headline numbers flatter it.

Some definitions first. A Form 4 is the filing an officer, director or large shareholder must submit to the SEC within two business days of trading their own company's stock. An open market purchase, marked with transaction code P, means shares were bought at market prices rather than received as pay. A 10% owner is anyone holding at least a tenth of a company's shares; they file Form 4s too, but their buying often has nothing to do with a view on next quarter's earnings. A cluster buy, several insiders at the same company buying around the same time, is treated as a stronger signal than one person buying alone.

The ten largest insider purchases of October 2026

The table ranks the largest single purchase totals of the month, one insider on one day, with every line of the same Form 4 added together. Purchases under pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plans, merger share issues, private placements of new shares and trust transfers are left out and covered separately below, because they are not decisions made in the market that month.

Only a handful of these are the classic signal of an executive spending personal money on their own company, and several entries carry an asterisk the next sections explain: the Lycia Therapeutics (LYCA) and Iambic Therapeutics (IAM) purchases were priced exactly at those companies' IPO prices in their first days of trading, the Rapport Therapeutics (RAPP) purchase was priced exactly at a share offering the company ran the same day, and the QVC Group (QVCG) purchase was matched share for share by a sale from another fund.

Ryan Cohen keeps buying GameStop, near the top of the range

The largest buyer among officers and directors was Ryan Cohen of GameStop (GME). Cohen bought 700,000 shares on October 2 at an average of $24.41, then 844,130 more on October 13 at an average of $26.98, a combined $39.9 million for the month. It was his fifth round of open market buying since September 10, taking his five-week total to about $97 million, and it lifted his direct holding to about 42.5 million shares.

This was not dip buying. GameStop's 52-week range runs from $17.79 to $28.30, and Cohen's October purchases were made in the upper part of that range, the second one within about a dollar of the year's high. He also stood essentially alone: no other GameStop insider bought on anything like this scale. By the October 30 close of $24.23, both October purchases were under water. The picture is a chairman adding steadily at prices the market had already marked up, rather than waiting for a fall.

A $29 million purchase the day after a 14% drop

Mitchell Jacobson, a director and 10% owner of MSC Industrial Direct (MSM), bought 250,000 shares on October 23 for $29.0 million, across three lines of one Form 4 at an average of $115.94. The timing is the story. MSC had reported fiscal fourth-quarter results the day before: sales rose 10.3% and adjusted earnings beat expectations, but a $42 million impairment charge tied to a discontinued technology program hit reported profit, and the stock fell 14.3% in that session. Jacobson bought in the first session after the fall, about 13% below the stock's 52-week high of about $134. Fellow director Reuben Slone bought a small amount, about $50,000, the same day.

Two executives buy the low at Applied Digital

The cleanest cluster of the month came at Applied Digital (APLD). On October 16 the stock fell 11.5% to close at $18.05, touching $17.65 during the session, its lowest level in a year, in a week when JPMorgan had cut its rating on the company's bonds. That day, President Jason Zhang bought 300,000 shares at an average of $18.86 for $5.66 million, and Chairman and CEO Wes Cummins bought 55,803 shares at $18.04 for about $1.0 million. Neither filing shows a pre-arranged trading plan. They were the first open market purchases at Applied Digital since May 2023. One counterweight: director Richard Nottenburg had sold about $0.68 million of stock three days earlier.

Smaller buys with strong records behind them

Two smaller purchases carry unusual weight because of who made them. Julie Sweet, Chair and CEO of Accenture (ACN), bought 12,200 shares on October 26 for $3.0 million, in two batches at $245.11 and $246.17. It was the first open market purchase in the 299 Form 4s she has filed since 2010, and it raised her direct holding by about a third. Director Paula Price bought 800 shares the same day for about $0.2 million, also her first open market purchase on record. They are the only two open market buys at Accenture since June 2023.

At Northpointe Bancshares (NPB), four insiders bought a combined $1.82 million between October 23 and October 28: Chairman and CEO Charles Alan Williams bought 100,000 shares for $1.54 million across two days, with COO Joseph Long and directors Carrie Boer and Rajeev Chaudhary adding smaller amounts. The buying came days after third-quarter results on October 20 and alongside a new $30 million share repurchase program. Small dollars, but the textbook pattern: several insiders, their own money, soon after results.

Why the giant fund buys are a different animal

The top of October's table belongs to 10% owners, and their trades need different reading. Berkshire Hathaway's $192.6 million purchase of Lennar (LEN) shares on October 1 and 2 was a genuine market purchase, but by a strategic holder lifting its stake to about 12% of a homebuilder trading near its 52-week low, down roughly 40% over twelve months. It speaks to long-term value as Berkshire sees it, not to Lennar's next quarter.

Other giant figures never reach the table at all. Nippon Life spent about $196.7 million buying Corebridge Financial (CRBG) across 19 October trading days, more than Berkshire spent, but every purchase followed a Rule 10b5-1 plan adopted on August 7, so the timing was set in advance and the trades are excluded here. EEME Energy SPV appears in some trackers with a $142.1 million XCF Global purchase on October 16; the Form 4 records shares that Southern Energy's holders received in an all-stock merger that closed that day, at a deal reference price of $1.19 while the stock itself traded near $0.14. Director Chung-Yao Yin's $35.1 million Gogoro purchase was a private placement of newly issued shares under a financing agreement, not market buying. Even a familiar name needs its footnote read: PepsiCo (PEP) director Robert Pohlad's $23.7 million of code P purchases on October 14 moved shares between trusts he himself set up, priced off that day's high and low, with no shares bought in the market.

The fund entries inside the table come with their own context. Venrock's Lycia Therapeutics (LYCA) total was mostly 1,944,444 shares bought at the $18.00 IPO price on listing day, October 26. James Healy's Rapport Therapeutics (RAPP) purchase was made through funds he helps manage, at the $21.00 price of a share offering the company priced that day, a week after six Rapport insiders had bought about $1.7 million in the market at $26 to $27 following a fall on trial results. GoldenTree's QVC Group (QVCG) purchase was matched exactly by a same-day sale of 1,352,000 shares at the same $12.35 by Silver Point Capital, a transfer between two large holders, and QVC shares traded far below that price by month end.

Two readings of the same filings

The optimistic reading: the month's most credible buys share a pattern. Executives bought after price drops rather than after rallies, at MSC Industrial, Applied Digital and Rapport. Clusters formed at Northpointe and Applied Digital. A CEO who had never bought in sixteen years of filings bought at Accenture. Buyers used their own money, mostly outside pre-set plans, and several paid prices close to 52-week lows.

The cautious reading: the dollar totals are dominated by funds, offerings and plan trades that carry little information, and October's buyers were not obviously right by month end. GameStop closed below both of Cohen's purchase prices, Pampa Energia (PAM) fell about 10% after director Marcos Mindlin's $35.1 million purchase, and the Rapport cluster that bought near $26 to $27 was under water within a week. Insider buying shows where insiders were willing to commit money. It is a signal investors watch, not proof a stock will rise, and insiders can be early or simply wrong.

What to watch in November

Whether Cohen adds a sixth round at GameStop, and whether the Applied Digital and MSC Industrial buyers return now that their trading windows are open. Earnings season also matters mechanically: many insiders were in blackout periods during October and could not buy at any price, so the end of third-quarter reporting opens windows across the market, and November's filings will show a fuller picture.

This article is for information purposes only and is not financial advice.