MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Shares Up 1.7% – Time to Buy?

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP)’s share price traded up 1.7% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $57.31 and last traded at $55.4610. Approximately 5,544,557 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 16% from the average daily volume of 6,573,594 shares. The stock had previously closed at $54.53.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MP has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Zacks Research cut MP Materials from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 26th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of MP Materials from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, July 25th. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price objective on shares of MP Materials from $81.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 target price on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Monday, August 24th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on MP Materials from $70.00 to $61.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.21.

MP Materials Price Performance

The company’s fifty day moving average price is $51.36 and its 200 day moving average price is $56.53. The company has a market capitalization of $9.12 billion, a P/E ratio of -150.56 and a beta of 1.94. The company has a quick ratio of 8.56, a current ratio of 9.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported ($0.01) earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $108.49 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $96.89 million. MP Materials had a negative return on equity of 1.21% and a negative net margin of 19.85%.The company’s revenue was up 89.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.13) EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that MP Materials Corp. will post -0.12 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of MP Materials

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd boosted its position 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 buying an additional 1,000,000 shares during the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its holdings in shares of MP Materials by 5,523.6% in the second 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 period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in MP Materials by 13.2% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,597,885 shares of the company’s stock valued at $333,325,000 after buying an additional 769,517 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its holdings 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 boosted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 1,183,307 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 52.55% of the company’s stock.

MP Materials Company Profile

MP Materials Corp. is a rare earth materials company that owns and operates the Mountain Pass rare earth mine and processing facility in California. The site is one of the largest rare earth production facilities in the Western Hemisphere and produces rare earth concentrate, with an emphasis on neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr), materials used in high-performance permanent magnets.

The company is expanding its operations beyond mining and concentrate production into separated rare earth products and magnet manufacturing.