MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Stock Price Down 4.8% Following Analyst Downgrade

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) shares fell 4.8% on Wednesday after Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on the stock from $73.00 to $66.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock. MP Materials traded as low as $45.58 and last traded at $46.2170. 5,927,194 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 8% from the average session volume of 6,421,850 shares. The stock had previously closed at $48.53.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on MP. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price objective on shares of MP Materials from $81.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Freedom Broker started coverage on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Wednesday, September 16th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $57.00 target price for the company. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of MP Materials from $80.00 to $65.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 1st. Citigroup restated a “positive” rating on shares of MP Materials in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price target on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Monday, August 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $75.00.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MP Materials

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of MP Materials by 5.1% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,773,746 shares of the company’s stock worth $435,408,000 after buying an additional 376,519 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in shares of MP Materials in the second quarter worth about $65,230,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of MP Materials by 32.4% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 919,083 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,355,000 after buying an additional 225,009 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its stake in MP Materials by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 564,808 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,635,000 after purchasing an additional 8,556 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi raised its position in shares of MP Materials by 32.5% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 509,946 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,562,000 after buying an additional 124,945 shares during the last quarter. 52.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

MP Materials Stock Performance

The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $51.51 and a 200 day simple moving average of $55.09. The company has a current ratio of 9.51, a quick ratio of 8.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The stock has a market cap of $8.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -135.93 and a beta of 1.98.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported ($0.01) EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.01). MP Materials had a negative return on equity of 1.21% and a negative net margin of 19.85%.The firm had revenue of $108.49 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $96.89 million. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.13) earnings per share. MP Materials’s quarterly revenue was up 89.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that MP Materials Corp. will post -0.17 earnings per share for the current year.

About MP Materials

MP Materials Corp. is a rare earth materials company that owns and operates the Mountain Pass Rare Earth Mine and processing facility in California. The site produces rare earth concentrate, with a focus on neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr), materials used in high-strength permanent magnets.

The company is expanding its operations beyond mining and concentrate production by developing domestic capabilities to separate rare earth elements and manufacture neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets.