ITM Power Insiders Keep Buying While the Market Demands Proof

Insider purchases by ITM Power executives, including ex-Rolls-Royce CEO, underscore conviction despite stock volatility and mixed forecasts.

When a former Rolls-Royce chief executive puts his own capital into a UK electrolyser maker, it tends to register. Sir Warren East's 172,000-share purchase in early July — his first and only stake in ITM Power, at an average of 1.148 pounds per share — was the kind of signal that cuts through the noise of routine share-plan activity.

That noise, however, has been unusually persistent. On 14 August, the leadership trio of CEO Dennis Schulz, CTO Simon Bourne and CFO Amy Grey all acquired shares through the company's "Buy as You Earn" employee scheme at 1.103 pounds per share. Bourne and Schulz each took 136 partnership shares plus 136 matching shares, while Grey picked up 407 partnership shares with a matching 407 — 814 shares in total for the hydrogen specialist.

These purchases follow a fixed monthly or quarterly rhythm rather than representing spontaneous bets by management. Yet the regularity itself is telling: ITM Power's executives have been consistently topping up their holdings at a frequency that stands out among hydrogen-sector peers.

A Stock That Tests Conviction

The timing is notable because the share price has been anything but smooth. Mid-August saw the stock fall 7.7 percent in a single week to 0.68 pounds, even as analysts nudged their fiscal 2026 loss estimate slightly higher to 0.048 pounds per share while trimming revenue forecasts to 48.0 million pounds. The picture is genuinely mixed: operational progress alongside more cautious expectations on the top line.

At current levels around 1.25 euros, the shares trade roughly half below their 52-week high of 2.58 euros, reached about three months ago. Yet the longer-term record remains respectable — a 72 percent gain since the start of the year and a 49 percent advance over twelve months. The annualised volatility of 58 to 62 percent explains why swings in both directions are routine rather than exceptional.

The stock sits comfortably above its 200-day average of 1.13 euros, pointing to an intact medium-term uptrend, though it remains below the 50-day average of 1.32 euros with an RSI of 44.8 — neither overbought nor oversold.

Milestones and Hard Numbers

The operational backdrop gives the insider buying some substance. Roughly three weeks ago, green hydrogen produced at the RWE-operated Lingen site in Germany reached a customer for the first time — a genuine milestone that the market largely shrugged off, suggesting the event was already priced in. A strategic collaboration with Rheinmetall, first announced in April, continues to surface in market commentary without fresh details.

The financial fundamentals have been improving. ITM Power reported record first-half revenue of 18.0 million pounds for fiscal 2026, up from 15.5 million pounds in the prior-year period, while the adjusted EBITDA loss narrowed to 11.9 million pounds. More significantly, the contracted order book stands at 152 million pounds, providing a degree of planning certainty that exists independently of daily price movements.

That pipeline has been reinforced by external validation. In July, the UK government's Department for Energy Security and Net Zero awarded ITM Power a 46.5 million-pound grant to build the manufacturing line for its next-generation "Chronos" electrolyser in Sheffield. June brought a memorandum of understanding with DB Systemtechnik for green energy solutions in rail and transport, plus a strategic partnership with Protium Green Solutions for industrial hydrogen installations across Britain. In March, MorGen Energy reached a final investment decision on the West Wales hydrogen project at Milford Haven, for which ITM Power will supply its 20-megawatt Poseidon core module.

The Gap Between Substance and Sentiment

The broader context is Europe's slow but persistent build-out of a green hydrogen economy — governments subsidise, industrial customers test, partnerships multiply, yet equity markets remain sceptical as long as losses outpace profits. ITM Power sits squarely in that contradiction: the order book grows while the share price struggles to reflect it.

What the insider purchases demonstrate, then, is not proof that the business model works. Rather, they suggest that those with the clearest view of the numbers consider the long-term trajectory more plausible than the current valuation implies. Whether projects like Lingen and the Rheinmetall collaboration translate into concrete order flow in coming quarters will ultimately determine which side of that gap is right.