Pinnacle Associates Ltd. Cuts Stake in MP Materials Corp. $MP

Pinnacle Associates Ltd. reduced its position in MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) by 5.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 341,507 shares of the company’s stock after selling 19,853 shares during the quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd.’s holdings in MP Materials were worth $17,253,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MP. Royal Bank of Canada grew its holdings in MP Materials by 26.5% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 234,185 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,716,000 after purchasing an additional 49,052 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in MP Materials in the first quarter worth $215,000. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC purchased a new position in MP Materials in the first quarter worth $219,000. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its holdings in MP Materials by 4.6% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 10,793 shares of the company’s stock worth $265,000 after purchasing an additional 479 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in MP Materials by 36.0% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 193,943 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,734,000 after purchasing an additional 51,348 shares during the last quarter. 52.55% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Wedbush boosted their price objective on shares of MP Materials from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $82.00 target price on MP Materials in a research report on Friday, May 8th. TD Securities raised MP Materials to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 target price on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Wednesday, March 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MP Materials has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $81.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other MP Materials news, CFO Ryan Corbett sold 46,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 129,017 shares in the company, 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 is accessible through this link. Also, CEO James H. Litinsky sold 259,179 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.03, for a total transaction of $16,595,231.37. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 12,505,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $800,756,938.95. This trade represents a 2.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 366,000 shares of company stock valued at $23,469,816 over the last 90 days. 8.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

MP Materials Trading Down 2.6%

NYSE MP opened at $63.85 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $11.34 billion, a PE ratio of -152.03 and a beta of 1.90. The company has a fifty day moving average of $58.83 and a 200 day moving average of $59.43. MP Materials Corp. has a 1 year low of $18.64 and a 1 year high of $100.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 7.18 and a quick ratio of 6.58.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01) by $0.04. The company had revenue of $90.65 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $74.82 million. MP Materials had a negative net margin of 28.00% and a negative return on equity of 2.27%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 49.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.12) earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that MP Materials Corp. will post 0.1 earnings per share for the current year.

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.