MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Trading 2.7% Higher – What’s Next?

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) shares shot up 2.7% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $50.34 and last traded at $49.7010. 4,642,172 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 38% from the average session volume of 7,455,802 shares. The stock had previously closed at $48.41.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on MP shares. Wall Street Zen upgraded MP Materials from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, March 8th. TD Securities raised shares of MP Materials to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 9th. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of MP Materials from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $68.50 to $71.00 in a report on Friday, December 5th. Finally, DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 target price on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Wednesday, March 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $78.91.

MP Materials Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $8.83 billion, a P/E ratio of -95.58 and a beta of 1.55. The company has a current ratio of 7.24, a quick ratio of 6.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $58.58 and a 200-day moving average price of $62.18.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $52.69 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $76.06 million. MP Materials had a negative return on equity of 4.28% and a negative net margin of 38.26%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.12) EPS. On average, analysts expect that MP Materials Corp. will post -0.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Ryan Corbett sold 46,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total value of $2,760,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer 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 legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO James H. Litinsky sold 272,600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.17, for a total transaction of $17,492,742.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 12,805,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $821,758,774.05. This trade represents a 2.08% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 346,000 shares of company stock worth $22,006,616 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 9.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

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