MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Stock Price Up 7.1% Following Insider Buying Activity

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) rose 7.1% during mid-day trading on Thursday following insider buying activity. The company traded as high as $57.33 and last traded at $57.2560. Approximately 4,689,491 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 33% from the average daily volume of 6,994,982 shares. The stock had previously closed at $53.45.

Specifically, COO Michael Stuart Rosenthal acquired 10,000 shares of MP Materials stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 9th. The shares were bought at an average price of $54.30 per share, for a total transaction of $543,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief operating officer directly owned 136,622 shares in the company, valued at $7,418,574.60. This trade represents a 7.90% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MP has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Barclays initiated coverage on MP Materials in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. They set an “overweight” rating and a $69.00 price objective on the stock. Wedbush boosted their price target on MP Materials from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. DA Davidson reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price target on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on MP Materials from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded MP Materials from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, March 8th. Three 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 company. According to MarketBeat, MP Materials has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $80.14.

MP Materials Price Performance

The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $61.11 and a 200-day simple moving average of $59.68. The stock has a market cap of $10.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -136.32 and a beta of 1.86. The company has a quick ratio of 6.58, a current ratio of 7.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by $0.04. MP Materials had a negative return on equity of 2.27% and a negative net margin of 28.00%.The firm had revenue of $90.65 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $74.82 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.12) earnings per share. MP Materials’s revenue for the quarter was up 49.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that MP Materials Corp. will post -0.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of MP Materials

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MP. Royal Bank of Canada raised its stake in MP Materials by 26.5% during the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 234,185 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,716,000 after buying an additional 49,052 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in MP Materials during the first quarter valued at approximately $215,000. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC acquired a new stake in MP Materials during the first quarter valued at approximately $219,000. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its stake in 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 valued at $265,000 after buying an additional 479 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings 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 valued at $4,734,000 after purchasing an additional 51,348 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.