Insider Selling: MP Materials (NYSE:MP) CEO Sells $15,456,461.37 in Stock

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) CEO James Litinsky sold 234,651 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.87, for a total value of $15,456,461.37. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 11,855,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $780,952,414.55. This represents a 1.94% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

MP Materials Trading Down 0.2%

NYSE:MP opened at $64.57 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 7.18 and a quick ratio of 6.58. MP Materials Corp. has a 12-month low of $19.60 and a 12-month high of $100.25. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $59.36 and a 200 day simple moving average of $59.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.50 billion, a P/E ratio of -153.75 and a beta of 1.86.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 company had revenue of $90.65 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $74.82 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.12) EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 49.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that MP Materials Corp. will post -0.04 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on MP. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Wedbush boosted their price target on MP Materials from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. TD Securities upgraded MP Materials to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group set a $82.00 price target on MP Materials in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MP Materials has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $80.08.

Institutional Trading of MP Materials

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd lifted its holdings 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 valued at $996,741,000 after buying an additional 1,000,000 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of MP Materials by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,479,787 shares of the company’s stock valued at $731,519,000 after buying an additional 459,213 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of MP Materials by 13.2% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,597,885 shares of the company’s stock valued at $333,325,000 after buying an additional 769,517 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its holdings in shares of MP Materials by 76.3% in the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 2,921,542 shares of the company’s stock valued at $97,200,000 after buying an additional 1,264,243 shares during the period. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in shares of MP Materials by 71.6% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,834,914 shares of the company’s stock valued at $143,220,000 after buying an additional 1,183,307 shares during the period. 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.