Freedom Broker Initiates Coverage on MP Materials (NYSE:MP)

Freedom Broker initiated coverage on shares of MP Materials (NYSE:MP) in a report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm set a “hold” rating and a $57.00 price target on the stock. Freedom Broker’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 15.91% from the stock’s current price.

MP has been the topic of several other reports. Citigroup reaffirmed a “positive” rating on shares of MP Materials in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Needham & Company LLC decreased their target price on MP Materials from $81.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Wall Street Zen cut MP Materials from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, July 25th. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 target price on shares of MP Materials in a report on Monday, August 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on MP Materials from $75.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $76.58.

MP Materials Stock Performance

MP stock traded up $0.01 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $49.18. The company had a trading volume of 762,983 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,495,291. MP Materials has a twelve month low of $37.81 and a twelve month high of $100.25. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $51.20 and a 200-day simple moving average of $56.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 8.56 and a current ratio of 9.51. The company has a market cap of $8.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -144.84 and a beta of 1.94.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported ($0.01) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $108.49 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $96.89 million. MP Materials had a negative return on equity of 1.21% and a negative net margin of 19.85%.The firm’s revenue was up 89.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.13) EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that MP Materials will post -0.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MP Materials

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its position in MP Materials by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 121,478 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,804,000 after acquiring an additional 2,411 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of MP Materials in the 2nd quarter valued at about $220,000. MCF Advisors LLC increased its stake in MP Materials by 3,748.1% in the second quarter. MCF Advisors LLC now owns 5,195 shares of the company’s stock valued at $291,000 after purchasing an additional 5,060 shares during the last quarter. BlueCrest Capital Management Ltd purchased a new position in shares of MP Materials in the 2nd quarter valued at $672,000. Finally, Teamwork Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of MP Materials during the second quarter worth about $10,648,000. 52.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

MP Materials Company Profile

MP Materials Corp. is a rare earth materials company that owns and operates the Mountain Pass rare earth mine and processing facility in California. The site is one of the largest rare earth production facilities in the Western Hemisphere and produces rare earth concentrate, with an emphasis on neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr), materials used in high-performance permanent magnets.

The company is expanding its operations beyond mining and concentrate production into separated rare earth products and magnet manufacturing.