MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Trading Down 7.6% – What’s Next?

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP)’s stock price traded down 7.6% on Friday . The company traded as low as $41.12 and last traded at $41.2640. 7,489,151 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 14% from the average daily volume of 6,562,981 shares. The stock had previously closed at $44.65.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on MP shares. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of MP Materials from $69.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price objective on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Wedbush increased their target price on MP Materials from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $82.00 price target on MP Materials in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have given a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MP Materials presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $79.42.

MP Materials Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $7.35 billion, a P/E ratio of -98.25 and a beta of 1.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 6.58 and a current ratio of 7.18. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $56.74 and its 200 day simple moving average is $59.02.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other MP Materials news, COO Michael Stuart Rosenthal acquired 17,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 20th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $56.62 per share, with a total value of $962,540.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 1,333,673 shares in the company, valued at approximately $75,512,565.26. The trade was a 1.29% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Ryan Corbett sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total value of $1,500,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 109,017 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,176,275. This represents a 15.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 905,167 shares of company stock valued at $60,161,837. 8.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MP. Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd grew its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 1,000,000 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in MP Materials by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,479,787 shares of the company’s stock worth $731,519,000 after acquiring an additional 459,213 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in MP Materials by 13.2% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,597,885 shares of the company’s stock worth $333,325,000 after acquiring an additional 769,517 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its holdings in MP Materials by 76.3% during the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 2,921,542 shares of the company’s stock valued at $97,200,000 after purchasing an additional 1,264,243 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in shares of MP Materials by 71.6% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,834,914 shares of the company’s stock worth $143,220,000 after purchasing an additional 1,183,307 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 52.55% of the company’s stock.

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.