MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Stock Price Up 5.1% After Analyst Upgrade

Shares of MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) rose 5.1% during trading on Wednesday after Morgan Stanley raised their price target on the stock from $70.00 to $71.50. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock. MP Materials traded as high as $53.38 and last traded at $53.0690. 5,401,241 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 20% from the average session volume of 6,715,163 shares. The stock had previously closed at $50.49.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on MP. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of MP Materials in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Needham & Company LLC assumed coverage on MP Materials in a research note on Monday, June 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $81.00 target price for the company. Barclays began coverage on MP Materials in a report on Thursday, May 21st. They set an “overweight” rating and a $69.00 target price on the stock. Finally, DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price target on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $80.25.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 completion of 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 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 in the company, valued at approximately $800,756,938.95. The trade was a 2.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 1,205,167 shares of company stock worth $79,371,654 in the last quarter. 8.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Teamwork Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in MP Materials during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $10,648,000. Byrne Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of MP Materials in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $202,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of MP Materials by 16.7% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 6,088 shares of the company’s stock valued at $341,000 after acquiring an additional 872 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC raised its position in shares of MP Materials by 704.7% during the 2nd quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 12,771 shares of the company’s stock valued at $715,000 after acquiring an additional 11,184 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CX Institutional lifted its stake in MP Materials by 52.4% during the second quarter. CX Institutional now owns 1,820 shares of the company’s stock worth $102,000 after purchasing an additional 626 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 52.55% of the company’s stock.

MP Materials Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $9.45 billion, a P/E ratio of -126.35 and a beta of 1.86. The company has a 50 day moving average of $60.91 and a 200-day moving average of $59.41. 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 issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.03 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01) by $0.04. The company had revenue of $90.65 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $74.82 million. MP Materials had a negative return on equity of 2.27% and a negative net margin of 28.00%.MP Materials’s quarterly revenue was up 49.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.12) earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that MP Materials Corp. will post -0.04 EPS for the current year.

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.