MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Trading Up 1.3% – What’s Next?

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP)’s stock price traded up 1.3% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $46.70 and last traded at $45.8430. 6,345,778 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 4% from the average daily volume of 6,607,010 shares. The stock had previously closed at $45.24.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on MP. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Friday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their target price on MP Materials from $70.00 to $61.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Citigroup reiterated a “positive” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Needham & Company LLC cut their target price on shares of MP Materials from $81.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of MP Materials from $69.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $78.68.

MP Materials Trading Down 1.2%

The stock has a market cap of $8.14 billion, a P/E ratio of -109.01 and a beta of 1.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 6.58 and a current ratio of 7.18. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $57.42 and its 200-day simple moving average is $59.12.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.03 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01) by $0.04. MP Materials had a negative net margin of 28.00% and a negative return on equity of 2.27%. The company had revenue of $90.65 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $74.82 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.12) EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 49.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that MP Materials Corp. will post 0.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Ryan Corbett sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 109,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,176,275. This trade represents a 15.50% 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. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO James H. Litinsky sold 185,167 shares of MP Materials stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.14, for a total value 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 approximately $803,461,973.72. The trade was a 1.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 905,167 shares of company stock worth $60,161,837. Company insiders own 8.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of MP Materials

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Royal Bank of Canada increased its stake in MP Materials by 26.5% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 234,185 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,716,000 after purchasing an additional 49,052 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of MP Materials during the 1st quarter worth about $215,000. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC bought a new position in shares of MP Materials during the 1st quarter worth about $219,000. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its stake in shares of MP Materials by 4.6% in the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 10,793 shares of the company’s stock valued at $265,000 after buying an additional 479 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of MP Materials by 36.0% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 193,943 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,734,000 after buying an additional 51,348 shares during the period. 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.