Rheinmetall Hits Delivery Milestone, Yet Stock Stays Stuck Near Year's Low
Published on 07/17/2026 at 20:41 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
Rheinmetall has shipped the first batch of 155-millimetre artillery shells from its newly built plant in Unterlüß to Ukraine, a low-five-figure quantity that the defense group says will be fully delivered under the overarching contract before the end of 2026. The milestone arrives amid a flurry of operational announcements from the Düsseldorf-based company — a space-surveillance deal with Norway, autonomous-logistics training for British forces, and leadership of a German military research project on unmanned convoys. Yet none of these developments have been enough to lift the stock from the doldrums. At Friday's close, shares traded at €983.60, up 2.72% on the day but still down 36.66% for the year and barely 8.99% above the 52-week low of €902.50 touched in late June.
The disconnect between operational progress and market performance is stark. Rheinmetall entered the year with a record order backlog of €73 billion at the end of the first quarter, yet its free cash flow turned negative in the same period — a symptom of the capital intensity that accompanies breakneck expansion. Adding to the strain, the cancellation of the F126 frigate program will shave up to €300 million off 2026 revenue. While the second quarter is still expected to post sales growth of more than 60%, the market has been pricing in a more skeptical view, particularly after the defense sector’s long rally ran out of steam.
To sustain its production ramp-up, Rheinmetall is converting its former auto-supply plant in Berlin-Wedding into a munitions-component facility, employing around 350 workers. The company plans to almost double its global workforce to 70,000 from 40,000, a hiring spree that mirrors Germany’s planned defence spending of more than €150 billion annually from 2029. The Berlin conversion has drawn protests from local activists, but the broader expansion also includes a €270 million framework deal with Renk for Lynx gearboxes.
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Meanwhile, Rheinmetall is pushing into new domains well beyond ammunition. Together with Space Norway, it signed a memorandum of understanding in mid-July to collaborate on maritime surveillance of the Arctic and North Atlantic, combining X-band radar data from its own SPOCK-1 programme with Space Norway’s C-band SAR satellite capability. The deal is linked to the bilateral Hansa agreement between Germany and Norway. At the same time, the group has taken overall responsibility for the Bundeswehr’s InterRoC VII project on autonomous military convoys, and it has been training British forces for a major international exercise using self-driving HX trucks.
The tailwind from German export approvals remains strong. According to a report by junge Welt, export licences for defence goods hit a record €13.87 billion in the first half of 2026 — already surpassing the full-year total of €12 billion in 2025 — with €9.6 billion of that figure covering weapons of war. Ukraine was the single largest recipient at €2.5 billion, while Israel received €799 million in approvals, more than 60% of which was for a large maritime project. EU and NATO allies accounted for 84% of the total.
Inside the company, confidence has not wavered. Chief executive Armin Papperger purchased Rheinmetall shares through his holding company ATP in late June at an average price of around €954.62, a personal vote of faith timed near the stock’s trough. Warburg Research reiterated its buy recommendation with a €1,500 target in early July, and a quantitative screening system currently rates the stock a “Champion” based on long-term metrics. But the share price remains under pressure, not least because the company issued subscription shares on July 15, pushing the total number of voting rights to 46,789,567 — a technical increase in the share count that slightly dilutes per-share figures.
Investors now have two key dates in their sights. Rheinmetall will report second-quarter results on 6 August, and chief executives are scheduled to present at the Berenberg Stockholm Seminar on 1 September. Both events offer a chance to translate the recent operational momentum — fresh deliveries, space ambitions, and a bulging order book — into hard numbers that can challenge the market’s current, far more cautious valuation. For now, the stock remains a long way from its all-time high of €1,995.00 set on 29 September 2025, and the gap between what the company is doing and what its shares are saying has seldom been wider.
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