Plug Power (PLUG) Insider Goes Bargain Hunting: Exec Scoops Up Shares Amid Freefall

As Plug Power''s stock tanks, a company executive doubles down—loading up on shares while Wall Street panics. Contrarian play or career suicide?

Hydrogen hype meets reality check

The ''future of energy'' trade just got messier. While retail investors flee, one insider''s buying the dip hard—betting their own cash on a turnaround most analysts won''t touch.

Bonus jab: Nothing says confidence like an executive buying stock with money they wouldn''t miss at a blackjack table.

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Plug Power’s stock fell 63% in 2023 and 53% in 2024. So far this year, the share price is down 45% and trading at just $1.29 per share, making it a penny stock defined as any security below $5 a share. However, the decline hasn’t stopped CFO Paul Middleton from buying a large block of shares of the hydrogen-technology firm.

Filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) show that on June 9, Middleton paid $672,000 for 650,000 Plug Power shares at an average price of $1.03. The company’s CFO now owns 2.6 million shares of Plug Power in a personal account, and 56,047 more shares in a 401(k) retirement account.

First Buying Since 2019

Middleton’s purchases this year are the first time that an insider at Plug Power has bought company stock since 2019. The last insider to buy Plug Power stock was Chairman George McNamee, who paid $233,840 in March 2019 for 100,000 shares at an average price of $2.34 each.

Federal legislation in the U.S. was meant to help clean-energy companies such as Plug Power, but a slow rollout of subsidies and weak demand have hurt the company and its stock. The TRUMP administration’s Energy Department recently canceled nearly $4 billion of grants for clean-energy projects, further hurting PLUG stock.

Is PLUG Stock a Buy?

The stock of Plug Power has a consensus Hold rating among 20 Wall Street analysts. That rating is based on four Buy, 12 Hold, and four Sell recommendations issued in the last three months. The average PLUG price target of $1.45 implies 12.40% upside from current levels.