MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Shares Down 11.9% – Here’s What Happened

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP)’s stock price fell 11.9% during trading on Monday . The stock traded as low as $44.43 and last traded at $45.62. 11,546,145 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 53% from the average session volume of 7,531,033 shares. The stock had previously closed at $51.80.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on MP. Morgan Stanley upgraded MP Materials from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $68.50 to $71.00 in a report on Friday, December 5th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of MP Materials from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, March 8th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of MP Materials in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, TD Securities raised shares of MP Materials to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 9th. Two research 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, MP Materials presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $78.91.

MP Materials Price Performance

The business has a fifty day moving average of $58.90 and a 200 day moving average of $62.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 7.24 and a quick ratio of 6.67. The stock has a market cap of $8.58 billion, a PE ratio of -92.91 and a beta of 1.55.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $52.69 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $76.06 million. MP Materials had a negative return on equity of 4.28% and a negative net margin of 38.26%.MP Materials’s quarterly revenue was down 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.12) EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that MP Materials Corp. will post -0.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at MP Materials

In other MP Materials news, CEO James H. Litinsky sold 272,600 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.17, for a total transaction of $17,492,742.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 12,805,965 shares in the company, valued at $821,758,774.05. This represents a 2.08% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Ryan Corbett sold 46,000 shares of the firm’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 disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 346,000 shares of company stock worth $22,006,616 over the last ninety days. 12.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of MP Materials

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MP. Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of MP Materials by 83.0% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 39,047 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,972,000 after acquiring an additional 17,708 shares in the last quarter. EMC Capital Management bought a new position in MP Materials during the fourth quarter worth $25,000. WMS Group LLC bought a new position in MP Materials during the fourth quarter worth $557,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd boosted its holdings in MP Materials by 26,018.9% in the fourth quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 9,664 shares of the company’s stock worth $488,000 after purchasing an additional 9,627 shares during the period. Finally, Sit Investment Associates Inc. increased its stake in MP Materials by 7.2% during the fourth quarter. Sit Investment Associates Inc. now owns 59,375 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,000,000 after purchasing an additional 4,000 shares during the last quarter. 52.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.