MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Trading 9.3% Higher – Should You Buy?

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) rose 9.3% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $41.77 and last traded at $41.6550. Approximately 7,012,566 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 7% from the average session volume of 6,580,895 shares. The stock had previously closed at $38.10.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on MP shares. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of MP Materials from $69.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “positive” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on MP Materials from $70.00 to $71.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Wedbush lifted their target price on MP Materials from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on MP Materials from $75.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have given a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $78.35.

MP Materials Price Performance

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 firm has a market cap of $7.42 billion, a PE ratio of -99.18 and a beta of 1.86. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $55.43 and its 200-day moving average price is $58.46.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last posted its quarterly 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 the consensus estimate of $74.82 million. MP Materials had a negative net margin of 28.00% and a negative return on equity of 2.27%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 49.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($0.12) EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that MP Materials Corp. will post 0.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Michael Stuart Rosenthal acquired 17,000 shares of MP Materials stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 20th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $56.62 per share, for a total transaction of $962,540.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 1,333,673 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $75,512,565.26. The trade was a 1.29% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Ryan Corbett sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total transaction of $1,500,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 109,017 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,176,275. This trade represents a 15.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 905,167 shares of company stock worth $60,161,837. Insiders own 8.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in MP. MH & Associates Securities Management Corp ADV acquired a new stake in shares of MP Materials in the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,184,000. Leonteq Securities AG acquired a new stake in MP Materials during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,451,000. Phoenix Financial Ltd. acquired a new stake in MP Materials during the 4th quarter worth approximately $449,000. Savvy Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in MP Materials in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,569,000. Finally, Gunderson Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in MP Materials during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,168,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 52.55% of the company’s stock.

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.