MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Reaches New 1-Year Low After Analyst Downgrade

Shares of MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) reached a new 52-week low 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 $39.91 and last traded at $41.2840, with a volume of 7075535 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $43.13.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price target on shares of MP Materials in a report on Friday, June 5th. Wedbush increased their price objective on 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 MP Materials from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, July 25th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of MP Materials from $70.00 to $71.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, MP Materials presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $78.35.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Michael Stuart Rosenthal acquired 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 9th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $54.30 per share, with a total value of $543,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief operating officer 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 acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Ryan Corbett sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total value of $1,500,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 109,017 shares in the company, valued at $8,176,275. This trade represents a 15.50% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 905,167 shares of company stock worth $60,161,837 over the last 90 days. 8.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Key MP Materials News

Here are the key news stories impacting MP Materials this week:

• Positive Sentiment: JPMorgan maintains an “overweight” rating: JPMorgan Chase lowered its price target for MP Materials from $75 to $60 but still sees substantial upside from the current level. The continued overweight rating suggests the bank believes the rare-earths producer’s longer-term prospects remain attractive despite the reduced valuation target. Benzinga article
• Neutral Sentiment: Upcoming earnings are expected to improve: Zacks reports that analysts expect MP Materials’ earnings to grow in the upcoming report. However, the company does not currently have the combination of factors that Zacks considers supportive of a likely earnings beat, leaving the immediate earnings catalyst uncertain. MP Materials earnings expectations
• Negative Sentiment: One analyst downgraded the stock: A Seeking Alpha analysis advised investors to “wait for a better entry point,” reflecting concerns over valuation or near-term execution risks even after the recent share-price weakness. MP Materials rating downgrade analysis
• Neutral Sentiment: Peer comparison offers limited immediate direction: A report comparing MP Materials with Atlas Lithium reviews the companies’ investment profiles but does not identify a specific new catalyst for MP Materials. Atlas Lithium and MP Materials comparison

Institutional Trading of MP Materials

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of MP. Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd boosted its position in shares of MP Materials by 7.2% in the third quarter. Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd now owns 14,861,212 shares of the company’s stock worth $996,741,000 after acquiring an additional 1,000,000 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of MP Materials by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,479,787 shares of the company’s stock valued at $731,519,000 after purchasing an additional 459,213 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of MP Materials by 13.2% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,597,885 shares of the company’s stock valued at $333,325,000 after acquiring an additional 769,517 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted 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 valued at $97,200,000 after purchasing an additional 1,264,243 shares during the period. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in MP Materials by 71.6% in 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 during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 52.55% of the company’s stock.

MP Materials Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $7.42 billion, a P/E ratio of -99.18 and a beta of 1.86. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $55.03 and a 200-day moving average price of $58.32. 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 results 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. The business 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 firm’s revenue was up 49.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.12) EPS. Equities analysts expect that MP Materials Corp. will post 0.05 EPS for the current fiscal 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.