MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Trading Up 2.4% – What’s Next?

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP)’s share price was up 2.4% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $68.45 and last traded at $66.7920. Approximately 5,219,654 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 26% from the average daily volume of 7,052,387 shares. The stock had previously closed at $65.21.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on MP shares. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on MP Materials from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Wall Street Zen raised MP Materials from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, March 8th. Finally, William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Three equities 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $80.08.

MP Materials Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $11.89 billion, a PE ratio of -159.03 and a beta of 1.90. 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 stock has a 50-day moving average price of $59.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $59.43.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.03 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01) by $0.04. The business had revenue of $90.65 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $74.82 million. MP Materials had a negative return on equity of 2.27% and a negative net margin of 28.00%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 49.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($0.12) earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that MP Materials Corp. will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other MP Materials news, COO Michael Stuart Rosenthal acquired 17,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 20th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $56.62 per share, with a total value of $962,540.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 1,333,673 shares in the company, valued at approximately $75,512,565.26. This trade represents a 1.29% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO James H. Litinsky sold 177,188 shares of MP Materials stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.13, for a total value of $11,540,254.44. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 12,205,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $794,974,500.45. This represents a 1.43% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 666,000 shares of company stock valued at $43,103,382 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 8.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MP Materials

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Private Advisory Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of MP Materials during the fourth quarter worth about $9,702,000. Polianta Ltd acquired a new position in shares of MP Materials during the fourth quarter worth about $1,227,000. Retirement Systems of Alabama acquired a new position in shares of MP Materials during the third quarter worth about $10,915,000. South Dakota Investment Council acquired a new position in shares of MP Materials during the third quarter worth about $1,617,000. Finally, Dorsey Wright & Associates lifted its stake in shares of MP Materials by 84.1% in the third quarter. Dorsey Wright & Associates now owns 118,252 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,931,000 after acquiring an additional 54,031 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.