MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Trading Down 2.5% After Insider Selling

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) shares fell 2.5% during mid-day trading on Tuesday following insider selling activity. The company traded as low as $63.40 and last traded at $63.6940. 9,902,579 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 3% from the average session volume of 9,580,133 shares. The stock had previously closed at $65.34.

Specifically, CEO James H. Litinsky sold 27,400 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.01, for a total value of $1,753,874.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 13,078,565 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $837,158,945.65. This represents a 0.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO James H. Litinsky sold 272,600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.17, for a total value of $17,492,742.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 12,805,965 shares in the company, valued at $821,758,774.05. This represents a 2.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on MP shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of MP Materials from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $75.00 to $74.00 in a report on Friday, November 14th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of MP Materials from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $68.50 to $71.00 in a research report on Friday, December 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on MP Materials in a research report on Wednesday, November 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $77.00 price target on the stock. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of MP Materials from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $76.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Monday, November 24th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated 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, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.91.

MP Materials Trading Down 2.5%

The company has a quick ratio of 7.51, a current ratio of 8.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The firm has a market cap of $11.29 billion, a PE ratio of -89.71 and a beta of 1.62. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $57.48 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $62.28.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.10) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.15) by $0.05. The firm 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was down 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.12) earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that MP Materials Corp. will post -0.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MP Materials

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Calamos Advisors LLC bought a new position in MP Materials in the third quarter valued at $16,726,000. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. lifted its position in MP Materials by 132.7% during the 2nd quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 176,984 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,888,000 after buying an additional 100,915 shares in the last quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of MP Materials during the 2nd quarter worth about $241,000. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new position in shares of MP Materials during the 2nd quarter worth about $168,000. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of MP Materials in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,206,000. Institutional investors 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.