MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Shares Up 1.2% – Here’s What Happened

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) rose 1.2% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $58.52 and last traded at $54.42. 7,019,455 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 7% from the average daily volume of 6,583,843 shares. The stock had previously closed at $53.78.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on MP. 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. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of MP Materials from $69.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of MP Materials in a report on Wednesday, August 19th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price target on MP Materials from $70.00 to $61.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $78.21.

MP Materials Trading Up 1.2%

The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $51.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $56.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.69 billion, a PE ratio of -160.05 and a beta of 1.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 9.51 and a quick ratio of 8.56.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Michael Rosenthal bought 10,000 shares of MP Materials stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 9th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $54.30 per share, with a total value of $543,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief operating officer directly owned 136,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,418,574.60. The trade was a 7.90% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 8.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of MP Materials

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Corient Private Wealth LP raised its stake in MP Materials by 9.2% in the 2nd quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 37,760 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,115,000 after purchasing an additional 3,178 shares during the last quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC boosted its stake in MP Materials by 15.1% during the 2nd quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 35,164 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,968,000 after purchasing an additional 4,612 shares during the last quarter. Amundi grew its holdings in shares of MP Materials by 32.5% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 509,946 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,562,000 after buying an additional 124,945 shares in the last quarter. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al purchased a new stake in shares of MP Materials during the second quarter worth $672,000. Finally, California State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in shares of MP Materials by 5,523.6% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 9,225,687 shares of the company’s stock valued at $516,731,000 after buying an additional 9,061,633 shares during 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.