MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Trading 2.7% Higher – What’s Next?

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) shares shot up 2.7% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $50.34 and last traded at $49.7010. 4,642,172 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 38% from the average session volume of 7,455,802 shares. The stock had previously closed at $48.41.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on MP. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of MP Materials from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $68.50 to $71.00 in a research report on Friday, December 5th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of MP Materials from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, March 8th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, DA Davidson reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price target on shares of MP Materials in a report on Wednesday, March 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, MP Materials presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $78.91.

MP Materials Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 6.67, a current ratio of 7.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $58.58 and a 200 day moving average price of $62.18. The stock has a market cap of $8.83 billion, a PE ratio of -95.58 and a beta of 1.55.

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

Insider Activity at MP Materials

In other news, CFO Ryan Corbett sold 46,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total transaction of $2,760,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 129,017 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,741,020. This trade represents a 26.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO James H. Litinsky sold 272,600 shares of MP Materials stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.17, for a total transaction of $17,492,742.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 12,805,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $821,758,774.05. The trade was a 2.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 346,000 shares of company stock valued at $22,006,616 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 9.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its stake in shares of MP Materials by 26.5% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 234,185 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,716,000 after purchasing an additional 49,052 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC bought a new position in MP Materials in the first quarter worth about $215,000. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC bought a new position in MP Materials in the first quarter worth about $219,000. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its position in shares of MP Materials by 4.6% during the first 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 last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of MP Materials by 36.0% during the first 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 last quarter. 52.55% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.