ITM Power: Director Buys 172,000 Shares, State Banks £86.5m, Yet the Stock Keeps Falling
Published on 07/14/2026 at 12:12 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
A company director has purchased 172,000 shares in ITM Power just as the hydrogen electrolyser specialist secures a £46.5 million grant from the UK government’s energy security ministry and a further £40 million equity injection from Great British Energy. The combined £86.5 million funding is earmarked for the Chronos production line at the company’s Sheffield site, a facility designed to slash manufacturing costs by 40% and improve energy efficiency by 10% at a stated annual capacity of 1 GW. Despite the insider vote of confidence and the formal green light from London, the shares remain stuck in a four-week slide, trading at €1.32 — roughly 15% below where they stood a month ago and 7% lower than last week.
The disconnect between the funding headlines and the price action is partly mechanical: the grant was first flagged in April and the market had long since priced it in. More fundamentally, ITM Power continues to burn cash, with both operating and free cash flow in negative territory. The stock had rallied strongly earlier in the year, climbing to a May high of €2.58, and the current retreat looks increasingly like a correction from those overbought levels. The 14-day relative strength index now sits at around 41, neutral to weak, while annualised 30-day volatility has surged past 106%, leaving the equity vulnerable to sharp swings in either direction.
Bulls point to the improving operational backdrop. In its first half, ITM Power delivered a record £18 million in revenue, and the proportion of profitable contracts rose from 60% to 71%. The order book stands at £152 million, and the company is moving from one-off plant sales toward a recurring revenue model via its Trident, Neptune and Chronos platforms, supplemented by factory automation and the Hydropulse offering. Analyst sentiment has brightened: Berenberg lifted its price target from 110p to 200p, and Morgan Stanley has upgraded the stock. The insider purchase — 172,000 shares bought by a director at current depressed levels — is read by optimists as a signal that the board sees value that the broader market is overlooking.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying ITM Power?
Bears counter that funding commitments do not guarantee profitable execution. Simply Wall St has flagged structural risks including high financing hurdles, political uncertainty and intensifying competition that could squeeze the project pipeline and contract margins. Cost containment remains a work in progress, and supply-chain pressures may delay the path to sustainable profitability even as revenue grows. A more immediate external threat is the chronic bottleneck in the UK’s electricity grid: delays in network connections are already forcing some clean energy and data centre projects to seek alternative power sources or accept decade-long wait times. If ITM Power’s customers cannot obtain timely grid access for new electrolysers, the conversion of the order book into revenue slips further out, regardless of how smoothly the Sheffield factory runs.
All eyes are now on the Cromarty hydrogen project in Scotland, where a final investment decision is expected in the second half of 2026. A positive FID would mark the first concrete transformation of government grants into a large-scale commercial order — precisely the proof point that the market has been awaiting since the Chronos funding was first mooted. For now, the shares are rattling around technical support near the 100-day moving average at €1.34, with resistance at the 50-day average of roughly €1.70. If the FID materialises on schedule and the Chronos ramp-up stays on track, a retest of the May highs is plausible. If it slips further or operating cash burn accelerates, the next line in the sand is the 200-day moving average around €1.08 — a level that would extend the current correction by another 22%. At this stage, the machinery is funded and a director has put his own money on the line. The market is waiting to see whether that translates into orders, and eventually, into profits.
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ITM Power Stock: New Analysis - 14 July
Fresh ITM Power information released. What's the impact for investors? Our latest independent report examines recent figures and market trends.
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