MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Trading Down 1.5% – Here’s Why

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP)’s stock price fell 1.5% during trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $50.33 and last traded at $50.5680. Approximately 4,817,720 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 26% from the average session volume of 6,550,131 shares. The stock had previously closed at $51.32.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MP has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays dropped their price objective on MP Materials from $69.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Wall Street Zen downgraded MP Materials from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 25th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of MP Materials in a report on Tuesday. Needham & Company LLC dropped their price target on MP Materials from $81.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of MP Materials from $75.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $78.21.

MP Materials Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $9.01 billion, a P/E ratio of -148.73 and a beta of 1.94. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $51.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 8.56 and a current ratio of 9.51.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported ($0.01) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $108.49 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $96.89 million. MP Materials had a negative return on equity of 1.21% and a negative net margin of 19.85%.The business’s revenue was up 89.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.13) earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that MP Materials Corp. will post -0.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of MP Materials

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MP. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its holdings in shares of MP Materials by 5,523.6% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 9,225,687 shares of the company’s stock worth $516,731,000 after buying an additional 9,061,633 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of MP Materials in the 4th quarter valued at about $82,531,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its position in MP Materials by 76.3% in the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 2,921,542 shares of the company’s stock worth $97,200,000 after acquiring an additional 1,264,243 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in 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 acquiring an additional 1,183,307 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in MP Materials during the second quarter worth approximately $65,230,000. Institutional investors own 52.55% of the company’s stock.

MP Materials Company Profile

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 is one of the largest rare earth production facilities in the Western Hemisphere and produces rare earth concentrate, with an emphasis on neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr), materials used in high-performance permanent magnets.

The company is expanding its operations beyond mining and concentrate production into separated rare earth products and magnet manufacturing.