MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Trading 5.3% Higher – Here’s Why

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP)’s share price shot up 5.3% on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $69.43 and last traded at $69.2440. 6,044,144 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 15% from the average session volume of 7,117,141 shares. The stock had previously closed at $65.76.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on MP. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 target price on shares of MP Materials in a report on Wednesday, March 11th. TD Securities raised shares of MP Materials to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 9th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of MP Materials from $71.00 to $62.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $79.08.

MP Materials Stock Up 5.3%

The company has a current ratio of 7.24, a quick ratio of 6.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The firm has a market cap of $12.30 billion, a PE ratio of -133.16 and a beta of 1.67. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $56.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $60.78.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $52.69 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $76.06 million. MP Materials had a negative net margin of 38.26% and a negative return on equity of 4.28%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.12) EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that MP Materials Corp. will post 0.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other MP Materials news, CEO James H. Litinsky sold 259,179 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.03, for a total transaction of $16,595,231.37. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 12,505,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $800,756,938.95. The trade was a 2.03% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Ryan Corbett sold 46,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total transaction of $2,760,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 129,017 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,741,020. This represents a 26.28% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 346,000 shares of company stock worth $21,969,816. Insiders own 12.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of MP Materials

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of MP Materials in the 4th quarter valued at $82,531,000. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. boosted its holdings in MP Materials by 168.4% during the third quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. now owns 2,589,908 shares of the company’s stock worth $173,705,000 after buying an additional 1,624,908 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its holdings in MP Materials by 76.3% during the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 2,921,542 shares of the company’s stock worth $97,200,000 after buying an additional 1,264,243 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in MP Materials by 71.6% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,834,914 shares of the company’s stock valued at $143,220,000 after purchasing an additional 1,183,307 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd lifted its holdings in MP Materials by 7.2% during the third quarter. Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd now owns 14,861,212 shares of the company’s stock valued at $996,741,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000,000 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 52.55% of the company’s stock.

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.