MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Trading Down 3.3% – Time to Sell?

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP)’s stock price fell 3.3% on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $48.57 and last traded at $49.4670. 4,220,781 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 43% from the average session volume of 7,354,743 shares. The stock had previously closed at $51.17.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on MP. TD Securities raised MP Materials to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 9th. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 target price on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Wednesday, March 11th. Wall Street Zen raised MP Materials from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, March 8th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $78.91.

MP Materials Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $8.79 billion, a PE ratio of -95.13 and a beta of 1.67. The business has a 50-day moving average of $57.56 and a 200 day moving average of $61.77. The company has a current ratio of 7.24, a quick ratio of 6.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $52.69 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $76.06 million. MP Materials had a negative return on equity of 4.28% and a negative net margin of 38.26%.MP Materials’s quarterly revenue was down 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.12) EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that MP Materials Corp. will post -0.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Ryan Corbett sold 46,000 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 129,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,741,020. This represents a 26.28% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO James H. Litinsky sold 272,600 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 12,805,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $821,758,774.05. The trade was a 2.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 346,000 shares of company stock valued at $22,006,616 over the last three months. 9.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MP Materials

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Corient Private Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of MP Materials by 83.0% during the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 39,047 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,972,000 after purchasing an additional 17,708 shares during the last quarter. EMC Capital Management purchased a new stake in shares of MP Materials during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. WMS Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of MP Materials during the 4th quarter valued at $557,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd increased its position in shares of MP Materials by 26,018.9% during the 4th quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 9,664 shares of the company’s stock valued at $488,000 after purchasing an additional 9,627 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sit Investment Associates Inc. increased its position in shares of MP Materials by 7.2% during the 4th quarter. Sit Investment Associates Inc. now owns 59,375 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,000,000 after purchasing an additional 4,000 shares during the last quarter. 52.55% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.