MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Shares Up 5.3% – Time to Buy?

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP)’s stock price shot up 5.3% on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $69.43 and last traded at $69.2440. 6,044,144 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 15% from the average session volume of 7,117,141 shares. The stock had previously closed at $65.76.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on MP. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Tuesday. Wall Street Zen raised MP Materials from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, March 8th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on MP Materials from $71.00 to $62.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. Finally, Wedbush initiated coverage on MP Materials in a research note on Monday. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $90.00 price target for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $79.08.

MP Materials Trading Down 3.9%

The company has a fifty day moving average of $57.06 and a two-hundred day moving average of $60.86. The company has a current ratio of 7.24, a quick ratio of 6.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -116.96 and a beta of 1.67.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by $0.07. MP Materials had a negative return on equity of 4.28% and a negative net margin of 38.26%.The company had revenue of $52.69 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $76.06 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.12) earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that MP Materials Corp. will post 0.1 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO James H. Litinsky sold 259,179 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.03, for a total transaction of $16,595,231.37. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 12,505,965 shares in the company, valued at $800,756,938.95. The trade was a 2.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Ryan Corbett sold 46,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total value of $2,760,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 129,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,741,020. This trade represents a 26.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 346,000 shares of company stock valued at $21,969,816. Corporate insiders own 9.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of MP. Norges Bank acquired a new position in MP Materials during the fourth quarter worth $82,531,000. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. raised its stake in MP Materials by 168.4% during the third quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. now owns 2,589,908 shares of the company’s stock worth $173,705,000 after acquiring an additional 1,624,908 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in MP Materials by 76.3% during the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 2,921,542 shares of the company’s stock worth $97,200,000 after acquiring an additional 1,264,243 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in MP Materials by 71.6% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,834,914 shares of the company’s stock worth $143,220,000 after acquiring an additional 1,183,307 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd grew its holdings 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 worth $996,741,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000,000 shares during the last quarter. 52.55% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.