MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Shares Down 4.8% – What’s Next?

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP)’s share price traded down 4.8% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $49.25 and last traded at $50.4740. 6,797,738 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 1% from the average session volume of 6,719,926 shares. The stock had previously closed at $53.01.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on MP shares. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $82.00 price target on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Wedbush upped 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. DA Davidson reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price objective on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Needham & Company LLC started coverage on shares of MP Materials in a report on Monday, June 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $81.00 target price for the company. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of MP Materials from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $80.14.

MP Materials Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 7.18, a quick ratio of 6.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.99 billion, a PE ratio of -120.18 and a beta of 1.86. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $61.12 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $59.42.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last announced 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. 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $74.82 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.12) earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 49.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that MP Materials Corp. will post -0.04 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at MP Materials

In other news, CFO Ryan Corbett sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total transaction 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. This trade represents a 15.50% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO James H. Litinsky sold 185,167 shares of MP Materials stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.14, for a total value of $12,802,446.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 11,620,798 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $803,461,973.72. This represents a 1.57% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 1,205,167 shares of company stock valued at $79,371,654 in the last ninety days. 8.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Royal Bank of Canada increased its holdings in MP Materials by 26.5% in the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 234,185 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,716,000 after acquiring an additional 49,052 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in MP Materials during the first quarter valued at $215,000. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MP Materials in the first quarter valued at about $219,000. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its stake in shares of MP Materials by 4.6% during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of MP Materials by 36.0% during 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 in the last quarter. 52.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.