MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Trading Down 4.3% – Time to Sell?

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) dropped 4.3% on Monday . The stock traded as low as $56.12 and last traded at $57.4790. 7,021,455 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 5% from the average session volume of 6,679,296 shares. The stock had previously closed at $60.05.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MP has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC cut their price objective on shares of MP Materials from $81.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on MP Materials from $75.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Wedbush raised their price objective on MP Materials from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Finally, DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price objective on shares of MP Materials in a report on Monday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $78.21.

MP Materials Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 9.51 and a quick ratio of 8.56. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $51.76 and its 200-day moving average price is $56.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -169.05 and a beta of 1.88.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported ($0.01) earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01). MP Materials had a negative net margin of 19.85% and a negative return on equity of 1.21%. The company had revenue of $108.49 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $96.89 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted ($0.13) EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 89.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that MP Materials Corp. will post -0.07 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at MP Materials

In related news, COO Michael Stuart Rosenthal bought 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 9th. The shares were bought at an average price of $54.30 per share, for a total transaction of $543,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief operating officer directly owned 136,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,418,574.60. This trade represents a 7.90% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO James H. Litinsky sold 185,167 shares of MP Materials stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.14, for a total value of $12,802,446.38. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,620,798 shares in the company, valued at approximately $803,461,973.72. The trade was a 1.57% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 585,167 shares of company stock valued at $39,028,272. Company insiders own 8.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of MP Materials

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd boosted 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 worth $996,741,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000,000 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of MP Materials by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,479,787 shares of the company’s stock worth $731,519,000 after buying an additional 459,213 shares in the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of MP Materials by 5,523.6% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 9,225,687 shares of the company’s stock worth $516,731,000 after buying an additional 9,061,633 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of MP Materials by 13.2% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,597,885 shares of the company’s stock valued at $333,325,000 after acquiring an additional 769,517 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted 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 acquiring an additional 1,264,243 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 52.55% of the company’s stock.

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.