Rheinmetall AG shares slipped 4.2% in today’s trading, settling at €1,065.1, as fresh analyst downgrades extended a weeks-long market re-rating after the cancellation of the F126 frigate program. The move follows a series of price-target cuts that have pressured the German defense group's stock since the naval contract was called off.
This morning Berenberg lowered its price target to €1,600 from €1,750 while retaining a "Buy" rating. The bank also trimmed earnings-per-share estimates for 2026 through 2028 to reflect the impact of the lost contract, according to analyst George McWhirter. Berenberg noted that Rheinmetall’s upcoming Q2 report should still show signs of progress in addressing earlier delivery issues in ammunition and trucks.
The Berenberg revision arrived amid a broader wave of cuts by other brokerages: JPMorgan shifted to a "Neutral" view with a €1,350 target, and both Deutsche Bank and Barclays reduced their objectives in early July. Those changes come while the company secured a notable agreement at the NATO Summit in Ankara: a memorandum of understanding with Lockheed Martin to co-produce ATACMS missiles at Rheinmetall’s Unterluess facility in Germany.
Rheinmetall’s CEO Armin Papperger described the Unterluess facility as "the world’s first and only production facility for ATACMS guided missiles outside the United States." The market response, however, suggested that the ATACMS partnership was largely priced in after the stock climbed sharply from late-June lows near €900.
Broader market conditions provided limited support to the share price. U.S. indices traded in negative territory and the DAX saw mild weakness, creating a backdrop in which the recent rebound left the stock exposed to profit-taking. The company’s guidance and financial outlook remain clouded by the fallout from the F126 cancellation, which eliminated a contract worth up to €12.8 billion and raised questions about potential write-downs related to its approximately €1.5 billion NVL naval acquisition.
Despite those headwinds, Rheinmetall still shows structural strengths that investors weigh against the uncertainty. The company reported a backlog of €73 billion and has confirmed full-year revenue guidance of €14–14.5 billion. Nevertheless, the repeated downward revisions to analyst targets have increased focus on execution and near-term visibility.
The shares now trade well below their 52-week high of €2,008 but remain above the 52-week low of €900.2. Market participants are looking to the Q2 earnings release in early August for clearer signals on whether ammunition and truck delivery issues from prior quarters are being resolved and how management plans to bridge the revenue gap created by the F126 cancellation.
Quick takeaway - Price-target cuts from multiple brokers and lingering naval-segment uncertainty have driven a pullback in Rheinmetall's share price, even as the company maintains a large order backlog and an ATACMS production agreement that management highlights as strategically significant.