MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Stock Price Down 2.4% After Insider Selling

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP)’s stock price traded down 2.4% during trading on Monday after an insider sold shares in the company. The company traded as low as $57.33 and last traded at $57.7660. 5,076,841 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 27% from the average session volume of 6,997,703 shares. The stock had previously closed at $59.18.

Specifically, CEO James H. Litinsky sold 185,167 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.14, for a total transaction of $12,802,446.38. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 11,620,798 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $803,461,973.72. This trade represents a 1.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Barclays assumed coverage on MP Materials in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. They set an “overweight” rating and a $69.00 target price for the company. TD Securities raised MP Materials to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 9th. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC assumed coverage on MP Materials in a research note on Monday, June 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $81.00 price objective for the company. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $80.14.

MP Materials Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $10.28 billion, a PE ratio of -137.54 and a beta of 1.86. The company has a quick ratio of 6.58, a current ratio of 7.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The company has a 50-day moving average of $60.78 and a 200-day moving average of $59.77.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by $0.04. The company had revenue of $90.65 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $74.82 million. MP Materials had a negative return on equity of 2.27% and a negative net margin of 28.00%.MP Materials’s quarterly revenue was up 49.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.12) earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that MP Materials Corp. will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd boosted 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 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,479,787 shares of the company’s stock valued at $731,519,000 after buying an additional 459,213 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of MP Materials by 13.2% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,597,885 shares of the company’s stock valued at $333,325,000 after buying an additional 769,517 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its position in shares of MP Materials by 76.3% during the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 2,921,542 shares of the company’s stock valued at $97,200,000 after buying an additional 1,264,243 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings 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 during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 52.55% of the company’s stock.

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.