MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Stock Price Down 3.4% – What’s Next?

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP)’s stock price traded down 3.4% on Friday. The company traded as low as $39.88 and last traded at $40.1810. 5,593,750 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 13% from the average daily volume of 6,425,128 shares. The stock had previously closed at $41.61.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MP has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of MP Materials from $80.00 to $65.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 1st. Zacks Research lowered MP Materials from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 26th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on MP Materials from $73.00 to $66.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 7th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of MP Materials in a report on Tuesday, September 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $71.92.

MP Materials Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 9.51 and a quick ratio of 8.56. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $51.47 and a 200 day moving average price of $54.66. The stock has a market cap of $7.16 billion, a P/E ratio of -118.18 and a beta of 1.98.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported ($0.01) EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $108.49 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $96.89 million. MP Materials had a negative net margin of 19.85% and a negative return on equity of 1.21%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 89.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.13) EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that MP Materials Corp. will post -0.20 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of MP Materials

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State Street Corp boosted its stake in MP Materials by 5.1% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,773,746 shares of the company’s stock valued at $435,408,000 after buying an additional 376,519 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in shares of MP Materials in the second quarter worth approximately $65,230,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in MP Materials by 32.4% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 919,083 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,355,000 after acquiring an additional 225,009 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in MP Materials by 1.5% in the second quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 564,808 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,635,000 after acquiring an additional 8,556 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi lifted its stake in MP Materials by 32.5% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 509,946 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,562,000 after purchasing an additional 124,945 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 52.55% of the company’s stock.

MP Materials Company Profile

MP Materials Corp. is a rare earth materials company that owns and operates the Mountain Pass Rare Earth Mine and processing facility in California. The site produces rare earth concentrate, with a focus on neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr), materials used in high-strength permanent magnets.

The company is expanding its operations beyond mining and concentrate production by developing domestic capabilities to separate rare earth elements and manufacture neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets.