MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Stock Price Up 3% – Here’s What Happened

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP)’s stock price traded up 3% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $51.63 and last traded at $51.22. 4,070,683 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 45% from the average session volume of 7,403,362 shares. The stock had previously closed at $49.73.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on MP shares. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price objective on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. TD Securities upgraded MP Materials to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised MP Materials from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, March 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.91.

MP Materials Trading Up 3.0%

The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $57.81 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $61.91. 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 company has a market cap of $9.10 billion, a PE ratio of -98.50 and a beta of 1.67.

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

Insider Transactions at MP Materials

In other news, CFO Ryan Corbett sold 46,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total transaction of $2,760,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 129,017 shares in the company, valued at $7,741,020. The trade was a 26.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO James H. Litinsky sold 272,600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.17, for a total value of $17,492,742.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 12,805,965 shares in the company, valued at $821,758,774.05. This represents a 2.08% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 346,000 shares of company stock valued at $22,006,616 over the last three months. 9.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd increased its position 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 worth $996,741,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000,000 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position 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 last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 769,517 shares in the last quarter. Caxton Associates LLP bought a new stake in MP Materials in the 2nd quarter valued at about $132,238,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in MP Materials by 14.3% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,033,612 shares of the company’s stock worth $100,928,000 after buying an additional 378,510 shares during the last quarter. 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.