MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Rating Lowered to “Sell” at Wall Street Zen

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) was downgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report issued on Saturday.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on MP. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $82.00 target price on MP Materials in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of MP Materials from $69.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Wedbush upped their price target on shares of MP Materials from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on shares of MP Materials from $70.00 to $61.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MP Materials currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $79.42.

MP Materials Price Performance

Shares of MP Materials stock opened at $41.26 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $56.34 and a 200 day moving average of $58.89. MP Materials has a 12 month low of $41.12 and a 12 month high of $100.25. The firm has a market cap of $7.35 billion, a PE ratio of -98.25 and a beta of 1.86. The company has a current ratio of 7.18, a quick ratio of 6.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by $0.04. MP Materials had a negative return on equity of 2.27% and a negative net margin of 28.00%.The business had revenue of $90.65 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $74.82 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.12) EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 49.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that MP Materials will post 0.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other MP Materials news, COO Michael Stuart Rosenthal purchased 17,000 shares of MP Materials stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 20th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $56.62 per share, for a total transaction of $962,540.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief operating officer owned 1,333,673 shares in the company, valued at $75,512,565.26. This represents a 1.29% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO James H. Litinsky sold 234,651 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.87, for a total value of $15,456,461.37. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 11,855,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $780,952,414.55. The trade was a 1.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 905,167 shares of company stock valued at $60,161,837. 8.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of MP Materials

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd boosted its stake in shares of 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 during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in MP Materials by 3.3% in 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 during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in MP Materials by 13.2% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,597,885 shares of the company’s stock worth $333,325,000 after buying an additional 769,517 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its stake in MP Materials by 76.3% in the 2nd 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 during the period. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in MP Materials by 71.6% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,834,914 shares of the company’s stock valued at $143,220,000 after buying an additional 1,183,307 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.