MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Stock Price Up 7.5% – Still a Buy?

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) rose 7.5% on Monday . The stock traded as high as $71.37 and last traded at $69.5520. Approximately 8,519,187 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 21% from the average daily volume of 7,047,981 shares. The stock had previously closed at $64.70.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MP has been the topic of several research reports. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $82.00 target price on MP Materials in a research report on Friday, May 8th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Wedbush raised their target price on MP Materials from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $80.14.

MP Materials Trading Up 7.5%

The company has a current ratio of 7.18, a quick ratio of 6.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $59.36 and a 200-day simple moving average of $59.49. The company has a market capitalization of $12.38 billion, a PE ratio of -165.60 and a beta of 1.86.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last issued 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 during 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%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 49.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned ($0.12) EPS. Analysts predict that MP Materials Corp. will post -0.04 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other MP Materials news, COO Michael Stuart Rosenthal bought 17,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 20th. The stock was bought at an average price of $56.62 per share, with a total value of $962,540.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief operating officer directly owned 1,333,673 shares in the company, valued at $75,512,565.26. The trade was a 1.29% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Ryan Corbett sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total value of $1,500,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 109,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,176,275. This trade represents a 15.50% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 1,066,000 shares of company stock valued at $69,329,207 over the last quarter. 8.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MP Materials

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. EMC Capital Management acquired a new stake in MP Materials during the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. acquired a new stake in MP Materials during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. REAP Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in MP Materials during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Financial Consulate Inc. increased its stake in MP Materials by 555.3% during the fourth quarter. Financial Consulate Inc. now owns 557 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 472 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Los Angeles Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MP Materials in the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 52.55% of the company’s stock.

MP Materials Company Profile

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.