MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Shares Down 4.1% – Here’s Why

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) shares fell 4.1% on Wednesday. The company traded as low as $48.72 and last traded at $48.9440. 4,127,224 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 36% from the average daily volume of 6,493,937 shares. The stock had previously closed at $51.04.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MP has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Tuesday, September 8th. DA Davidson reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price target on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Monday, August 24th. Citigroup reissued a “positive” rating on shares of MP Materials in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on MP Materials from $69.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $76.29.

MP Materials Stock Performance

The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $51.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $55.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -143.14 and a beta of 1.94. The company has a current ratio of 9.51, a quick ratio of 8.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported ($0.01) earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.01). The company had revenue of $108.49 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $96.89 million. MP Materials had a negative net margin of 19.85% and a negative return on equity of 1.21%. MP Materials’s revenue for the quarter was up 89.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.13) earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that MP Materials Corp. will post -0.12 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MP Materials

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. EMC Capital Management bought a new stake in MP Materials in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. REAP Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of MP Materials in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Toth Financial Advisory Corp boosted its stake in shares of MP Materials by 73.3% in the 2nd quarter. Toth Financial Advisory Corp now owns 520 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 220 shares during the last quarter. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. bought a new stake in shares of MP Materials in the 4th quarter valued at $36,000. Finally, Markowski Investments bought a new position in MP Materials during the second quarter worth $43,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 52.55% of the company’s stock.

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.