MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Trading Down 7.8% on Analyst Downgrade

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP)’s share price traded down 7.8% during trading on Wednesday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on the stock from $75.00 to $60.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the stock. MP Materials traded as low as $37.81 and last traded at $38.0410. Approximately 8,735,446 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 33% from the average session volume of 6,577,312 shares. The stock had previously closed at $41.28.

MP has been the subject of several other research reports. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $82.00 price objective on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their target price on shares of MP Materials from $70.00 to $61.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Wedbush increased their target price on shares of MP Materials from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of MP Materials from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday. Finally, Barclays decreased their price target on shares of MP Materials from $69.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MP Materials has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $78.35.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO James H. Litinsky sold 185,167 shares of MP Materials stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.14, for a total value of $12,802,446.38. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 11,620,798 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $803,461,973.72. This trade represents a 1.57% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Michael Stuart Rosenthal acquired 10,000 shares of the business’s 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 acquisition, the chief operating officer owned 136,622 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,418,574.60. This trade represents a 7.90% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 905,167 shares of company stock valued at $60,161,837 over the last three months. Insiders own 8.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd raised its holdings in shares of MP Materials by 7.2% during the third quarter. Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd now owns 14,861,212 shares of the company’s stock valued at $996,741,000 after acquiring an additional 1,000,000 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in MP Materials by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,479,787 shares of the company’s stock worth $731,519,000 after purchasing an additional 459,213 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in MP Materials by 13.2% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,597,885 shares of the company’s stock worth $333,325,000 after purchasing an additional 769,517 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its position in MP Materials by 76.3% during the 2nd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 2,921,542 shares of the company’s stock worth $97,200,000 after purchasing an additional 1,264,243 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in MP Materials by 71.6% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,834,914 shares of the company’s stock worth $143,220,000 after purchasing an additional 1,183,307 shares in the last quarter. 52.55% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

MP Materials Stock Performance

The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $55.79 and its 200-day simple moving average is $58.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 6.58 and a current ratio of 7.18. The company has a market capitalization of $6.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -90.57 and a beta of 1.86.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.03 earnings per share (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 analyst estimates of $74.82 million. MP Materials had a negative return on equity of 2.27% and a negative net margin of 28.00%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 49.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.12) earnings per share. Analysts expect that MP Materials Corp. will post 0.05 EPS for the current year.

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.