Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Reduces Stake in MP Materials Corp. $MP

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lowered its stake in MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) by 15.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 74,393 shares of the company’s stock after selling 13,161 shares during the period. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in MP Materials were worth $3,758,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd grew its position in MP Materials by 7.2% in the third quarter. Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd now owns 14,861,212 shares of the company’s stock worth $996,741,000 after acquiring an additional 1,000,000 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in MP Materials by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,479,787 shares of the company’s stock worth $731,519,000 after acquiring an additional 459,213 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its position in MP Materials by 76.3% in the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 2,921,542 shares of the company’s stock worth $97,200,000 after acquiring an additional 1,264,243 shares in the last quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. grew its position in MP Materials by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. now owns 2,609,526 shares of the company’s stock worth $131,833,000 after acquiring an additional 19,618 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in MP Materials by 8.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,544,743 shares of the company’s stock worth $128,587,000 after acquiring an additional 197,375 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 52.55% of the company’s stock.

MP Materials Trading Down 2.4%

NYSE:MP opened at $57.77 on Tuesday. MP Materials Corp. has a 52 week low of $23.26 and a 52 week high of $100.25. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $60.90 and a 200 day moving average of $59.77. The company has a quick ratio of 6.58, a current ratio of 7.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -137.54 and a beta of 1.86.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.03 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01) by $0.04. The company had revenue of $90.65 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $74.82 million. MP Materials had a negative net margin of 28.00% and a negative return on equity of 2.27%. MP Materials’s revenue for the quarter was up 49.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.12) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that MP Materials Corp. will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Ryan Corbett sold 46,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 129,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,741,020. This represents a 26.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO James H. Litinsky sold 259,179 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.03, for a total value of $16,595,231.37. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 12,505,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $800,756,938.95. The trade was a 2.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 1,251,167 shares of company stock worth $82,131,654. Insiders own 8.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MP has been the subject of several recent research reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. TD Securities upgraded MP Materials to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 9th. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 target price on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Friday. Finally, Wedbush boosted their target price on MP Materials from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $80.14.

MP Materials Company Profile

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.