MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Trading 1.1% Higher – Should You Buy?

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP)’s share price was up 1.1% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $52.95 and last traded at $52.27. Approximately 2,726,316 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 59% from the average daily volume of 6,658,708 shares. The stock had previously closed at $51.71.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of MP Materials from $70.00 to $71.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of MP Materials in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $82.00 price target on MP Materials in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target on MP Materials from $70.00 to $61.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Finally, DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price objective on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $79.54.

MP Materials Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $9.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -124.45 and a beta of 1.86. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $60.48 and its two-hundred day moving average is $59.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 6.58 and a current ratio of 7.18.

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

Insider Transactions at MP Materials

In other MP Materials news, COO Michael Stuart Rosenthal bought 17,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 1,333,673 shares in the company, valued at $75,512,565.26. The trade was a 1.29% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Ryan Corbett sold 20,000 shares of MP Materials stock in a transaction on Friday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total value of $1,500,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 109,017 shares in the company, valued at $8,176,275. The trade was a 15.50% 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. Over the last three months, insiders sold 1,205,167 shares of company stock worth $79,371,654. Company insiders own 8.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of MP. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of MP Materials during the fourth quarter valued at about $82,531,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its position 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 valued at $97,200,000 after buying an additional 1,264,243 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in MP Materials by 71.6% in 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. Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd increased its stake in MP Materials by 7.2% during the 3rd 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 period. Finally, Amundi increased its stake in MP Materials by 1,320.8% during the 3rd quarter. Amundi now owns 954,317 shares of the company’s stock valued at $70,934,000 after buying an additional 887,148 shares during the period. 52.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.