MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Shares Up 2.1% – Time to Buy?

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP)’s stock price shot up 2.1% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $61.16 and last traded at $59.8460. 9,706,137 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 26% from the average session volume of 7,712,756 shares. The stock had previously closed at $58.62.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on MP. BMO Capital Markets upgraded MP Materials from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $76.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Monday, November 24th. Bank of America raised their target price on MP Materials from $78.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th. Wall Street Zen downgraded MP Materials from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 15th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of MP Materials from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $68.50 to $71.00 in a research report on Friday, December 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $78.91.

MP Materials Trading Up 2.1%

The stock has a 50 day moving average of $57.57 and a 200-day moving average of $61.36. The company has a market capitalization of $10.61 billion, a P/E ratio of -84.29 and a beta of 1.62. The company has a current ratio of 8.05, a quick ratio of 7.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.10) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.15) by $0.05. The company had revenue of $53.55 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $49.72 million. MP Materials had a negative net margin of 50.55% and a negative return on equity of 7.69%. The firm’s revenue was down 14.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.12) EPS. On average, research analysts predict that MP Materials Corp. will post -0.19 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other MP Materials news, CFO Ryan Corbett sold 38,146 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total value of $2,288,760.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 156,666 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,399,960. This represents a 19.58% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO James H. Litinsky sold 385,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $62.94, for a total value of $24,231,900.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 13,105,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $824,889,437.10. This represents a 2.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 691,557 shares of company stock worth $43,538,586. 9.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd raised its position in shares of MP Materials by 7.2% during the third quarter. Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd now owns 14,861,212 shares of the company’s stock valued at $996,741,000 after buying an additional 1,000,000 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of MP Materials by 2.7% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,020,574 shares of the company’s stock worth $940,360,000 after acquiring an additional 363,975 shares during the last quarter. Caxton Associates LLP purchased a new position in MP Materials during the second quarter valued at $132,238,000. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in MP Materials by 14.3% in the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,033,612 shares of the company’s stock valued at $100,928,000 after acquiring an additional 378,510 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its stake in MP Materials by 76.3% in the 2nd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 2,921,542 shares of the company’s stock worth $97,200,000 after purchasing an additional 1,264,243 shares in the last quarter. 52.55% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About MP Materials

MP Materials Corporation operates as a vertically integrated producer of rare earth materials in North America. The company owns and manages the Mountain Pass Rare Earth Mine and Processing Facility in California, the only commercially viable rare earth mining and processing site in the United States. MP Materials extracts, separates and refines critical rare earth elements—such as neodymium, praseodymium, and cerium—which are essential inputs for permanent magnets used in electric vehicles, wind turbines, and various defense applications.

The Mountain Pass mine first began commercial rare earth production in the 1950s and was later operated by Molycorp until its bankruptcy in 2015.