MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Trading 9.3% Higher – Here’s Why

Shares of MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) rose 9.3% on Thursday . The company traded as high as $41.77 and last traded at $41.6550. Approximately 7,012,566 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 7% from the average session volume of 6,580,895 shares. The stock had previously closed at $38.10.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on MP shares. Citigroup reissued a “positive” rating on shares of MP Materials in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Barclays reduced their price target on MP Materials from $69.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Friday, July 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of MP Materials from $75.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price target on shares of MP Materials from $70.00 to $61.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.21.

MP Materials Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $7.36 billion, a PE ratio of -98.46 and a beta of 1.86. The business’s fifty day moving average is $54.57 and its two-hundred day moving average is $58.20. The company has a current ratio of 7.18, a quick ratio of 6.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. MP Materials had a negative return on equity of 2.27% and a negative net margin of 28.00%.The business had revenue of $90.65 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $74.82 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.12) EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 49.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that MP Materials Corp. will post 0.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Ryan Corbett sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total transaction of $1,500,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 109,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,176,275. This represents a 15.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO James H. Litinsky sold 234,651 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.87, for a total value of $15,456,461.37. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,855,965 shares in the company, valued at $780,952,414.55. This trade represents a 1.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 905,167 shares of company stock valued at $60,161,837 over the last ninety days. 8.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of MP Materials

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. MH & Associates Securities Management Corp ADV purchased a new stake in MP Materials during the 4th quarter valued at $1,184,000. Leonteq Securities AG bought a new position in shares of MP Materials during the 4th quarter valued at $2,451,000. Phoenix Financial Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of MP Materials in the 4th quarter worth $449,000. Savvy Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of MP Materials in the 4th quarter worth $1,569,000. Finally, Bleakley Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of MP Materials in the 4th quarter worth $1,482,000. 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.