MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Stock Price Up 2.8% – Here’s What Happened

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP)’s share price shot up 2.8% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $69.03 and last traded at $68.0270. 5,551,562 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 20% from the average session volume of 6,940,389 shares. The stock had previously closed at $66.20.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price objective on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. Wedbush assumed coverage on MP Materials in a research note on Monday, April 20th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $90.00 price objective for the company. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on MP Materials from $71.00 to $62.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $79.08.

MP Materials Stock Up 2.8%

The company has a market cap of $12.09 billion, a P/E ratio of -130.82 and a beta of 1.90. The company has a 50 day moving average of $57.56 and a 200-day moving average of $59.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 7.24 and a quick ratio of 6.67.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $52.69 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $76.06 million. MP Materials had a negative return on equity of 4.28% and a negative net margin of 38.26%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($0.12) earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that MP Materials Corp. will post 0.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other MP Materials news, CFO Ryan Corbett sold 46,000 shares of MP Materials stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total transaction of $2,760,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 129,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,741,020. The trade was a 26.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO James H. Litinsky sold 259,179 shares of MP Materials stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.03, for a total value of $16,595,231.37. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly 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. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 346,000 shares of company stock valued at $21,969,816. Corporate insiders own 8.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MP Materials

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in MP Materials by 21.3% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 3,787 shares of the company’s stock worth $183,000 after purchasing an additional 664 shares during the last quarter. NFSG Corp lifted its stake in MP Materials by 5.0% during the first quarter. NFSG Corp now owns 5,387 shares of the company’s stock worth $260,000 after purchasing an additional 255 shares during the last quarter. Emerald Mutual Fund Advisers Trust lifted its stake in MP Materials by 26.7% during the first quarter. Emerald Mutual Fund Advisers Trust now owns 6,966 shares of the company’s stock worth $336,000 after purchasing an additional 1,470 shares during the last quarter. Archer Investment Corp lifted its stake in MP Materials by 990.1% during the first quarter. Archer Investment Corp now owns 1,101 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State of Michigan Retirement System lifted its stake in MP Materials by 1.9% during the first quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 32,400 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,564,000 after purchasing an additional 600 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.