Insider Selling: MP Materials (NYSE:MP) CEO Sells $8,093,310.80 in Stock

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) CEO James Litinsky sold 122,812 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.90, for a total value of $8,093,310.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 12,383,153 shares in the company, valued at $816,049,782.70. The trade was a 0.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

MP Materials Stock Performance

MP stock opened at $61.35 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 7.18 and a quick ratio of 6.58. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $58.81 and a 200 day moving average price of $59.37. MP Materials Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $18.64 and a fifty-two week high of $100.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.92 billion, a PE ratio of -146.07 and a beta of 1.90.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 firm had revenue of $90.65 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $74.82 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.12) EPS. MP Materials’s revenue was up 49.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that MP Materials Corp. will post 0.1 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of MP Materials from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 11th. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price objective on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Wednesday, March 11th. TD Securities upgraded shares of MP Materials to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Wedbush boosted their price objective on shares of MP Materials from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MP Materials presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $81.00.

Institutional Trading of MP Materials

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MP. Royal Bank of Canada raised its position 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 valued at $5,716,000 after acquiring an additional 49,052 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of MP Materials during the 1st quarter valued at $215,000. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC bought a new stake in shares of MP Materials during the 1st quarter valued at $219,000. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its position in shares of MP Materials by 4.6% during the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 10,793 shares of the company’s stock valued at $265,000 after acquiring an additional 479 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in shares of MP Materials by 36.0% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 193,943 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,734,000 after acquiring an additional 51,348 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 52.55% of the company’s stock.

MP Materials News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting MP Materials this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain upbeat on MP Materials after its Q1 results: Morgan Stanley raised its price target to $70 from $62 and kept an Overweight rating, while Deutsche Bank lifted its target to $70 from $65 and reiterated a Buy rating. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: MP Materials continues to benefit from strong fundamental execution, including a Q1 earnings beat and 49.1% year-over-year revenue growth, which supports the stock’s longer-term rare-earth growth story. Article Title

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.