Insider: big buying at Rolls-Royce as UK tech bosses net £2.4m
Despite trading back near record highs, this director clearly thinks Rolls has further to climb. So do many analysts. Graeme Evans also spots heavy selling of this popular tech stock.
15th June 2026 07:56
by Graeme Evans from interactive investor
Raspberry Pi Holdings (LSE:RPI) boss Eben Upton has raised £1.8 million after the value of the low-cost computing and semiconductor business more than doubled in the space of two months.
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Upton sold shares at a price of 966.7p, while chief commercial officer Mike Buffham netted £607,000 from dealings on the same day at an even higher price of 1,011.8p.
Their disposals, which took place on Tuesday and were disclosed to the market on Friday, followed a one-day 30% surge for shares on the back of upgraded City guidance.
Shares were already in demand thanks to speculation about AI enthusiasts using low-cost Raspberry Pi boards to run the agent OpenClaw as an autonomous digital assistant.
The FTSE 250-listed stock started last week at a record 1,051p, having traded below the 280p listing price in its oversubscribed June 2024 flotation as recently as February.
The recovery since then has been underpinned by the strength of Raspberry Pi’s inventory position, its supplier relationships and pricing flexibility.
This has enabled it to navigate a jump in spot prices for the dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) used in the company’s single board computers and compute modules.
Demand has remained robust, with first half unit volumes of at least four million compared with the 7.6 million sold across 2025 and the 73 million since the company’s creation in 2012.
The products target a broad range of end markets, including industrial automation and internet-of-things data gateways as well as digital signage and smart home hubs. Semiconductor unit shipments recently exceeded board shipments for the first time.
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The strong demand and ongoing utilisation of low-density DRAM inventory accumulated throughout the 2025 means first half underlying earnings will be at least $38 million.
This compares with $19.4 million a year earlier and the City’s consensus full-year forecast of $42 million prior to the update.
Peel Hunt boosted its earnings estimate to $55 million and said its confidence has materially improved.
The City firm, which is reviewing its valuation, said: “Raspberry Pi is yet again delivering a masterclass of navigating supply issues, and making great progress in securing memory for 2026 and beyond.”
Shares later fell back to 794p as tech stocks came under pressure, and as traders reflected on the company’s guidance that its unit economics are set to moderate in the second half, as inventory of memory procured at a lower cost in earlier periods is depleted.
Deutsche Bank improved its price target by 100p to 650p but offered a cautious tone in a note to clients headed “Pi too sweet”.
It said the margin boost seen in the first half is likely to dissipate and that this is likely to limit the extent of a sustainable profit upgrade unless board prices keep shooting upwards.
The bank said: “In addition, we remain concerned that some are exaggerating the significance of AI enthusiasts in their spare time using Raspberry Pi’s for OpenClaw.
“In our view, the primary source of the resilience of single board computing volumes remains Raspberry Pi’s successful memory stockpiling in 2025, which is allowing the company to defy elasticity impacts and take share at the expense of smaller competitors.”
The shares rallied during Friday’s strong session to reach 836.5p, or a market capitalisation of £1.6 billion. Upton’s three million or so directly owned shares are worth about £25 million, having also bought shares at regular intervals over the past year.
The company founder and chief executive offloaded 190,000 shares in last week’s dealings. He also netted £1.8 million this time last year when the expiry of post flotation lock-up arrangements enabled him to sell shares at a price of 454.5p.
Buffham joined the business in December 2016 and has been chief commercial officer since September 2020.
Keep on rolling
A Rolls-Royce Holdings (LSE:RR.) director who bought the company’s shares in 2023 when they were 126p has continued her run of dealings with a purchase at 10 times the price of three years ago.
Non-executive board member Angela Strank, who previously worked at BP alongside Rolls chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic, made her latest move on Thursday at 1,254.7p.
Strank has built a stake of about 90,000 Rolls shares, which is worth more than £1.1 million.
Her latest £30,000 investment got an immediate 4% uplift as US-Iran peace hopes helped the engines maker to trade at 1,306.8p, which is close to the record 1,363p in early March.
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Bank of America believes the shares are worth 1,740p after highlighting the advantage of Rolls’ widebody exposure in a preview of the company’s half-year results on 30 July.
It expects a resilient performance before adding in Thursday’s note: “We continue to see Rolls-Royce as best positioned among aftermarket-exposed names into 2027-28.
“The combination of a relatively young installed base and a structurally strengthening widebody cycle supports sustained flying hour growth, in contrast to legacy narrowbody platforms where hours remain down high single-digits- to high-teens year-on-year.”
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Melrose Industries (LSE:MRO) was another beneficiary of Friday’s strong session, meaning an immediate boost to the paper value of an £80,000 investment by non-executive Guy Hachey.
His second purchase of Melrose shares in less than two months took place on Thursday at 449.1p, which compares with 640p prior to the start of the Middle East conflict and 464p in dealings on Friday.
The post-war selling pressure also reflected a negative reaction to results on 27 February as the mid-point of 2026’s operating profit guidance came in below the City consensus of £750 million.
The GKN Aerospace owner, whose Engines and Airframes divisions provide technology for more than 100,000 flights a day, is aiming for £1.2 billion by 2029. This will require an improvement in operating margin to 24% from 2025’s 18%.
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