USA Rare Earth (NASDAQ:USAR) Shares Gap Up Following Insider Buying Activity

USA Rare Earth Inc. (NASDAQ:USAR) gapped up prior to trading on Friday after an insider bought additional shares in the company. The stock had previously closed at $22.07, but opened at $22.86. USA Rare Earth shares last traded at $23.98, with a volume of 5,194,647 shares trading hands.

Specifically, Director Carolyn Trabuco purchased 1,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 29th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $22.60 per share, with a total value of $29,380.00. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 1,300 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,380. This represents a ∞ increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Michael Blitzer purchased 100,000 shares of USA Rare Earth stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 29th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $21.44 per share, for a total transaction of $2,144,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 847,500 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,170,400. This trade represents a 13.38% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on USAR. William Blair started coverage on USA Rare Earth in a research note on Monday, October 20th. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of USA Rare Earth in a research report on Monday, December 8th. Benchmark initiated coverage on shares of USA Rare Earth in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of USA Rare Earth in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their target price on shares of USA Rare Earth from $23.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, USA Rare Earth currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $34.33.

Key Headlines Impacting USA Rare Earth

Here are the key news stories impacting USA Rare Earth this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Director Michael Blitzer purchased 100,000 shares (~$2.14M at $21.44), raising his stake to ~847,500 shares — a strong insider-confidence signal that typically supports the stock. SEC Filing: Insider Purchase
• Positive Sentiment: USA Rare Earth closed a $1.5 billion PIPE financing, giving the company meaningful near-term capital to advance Round Top development, processing plans and downstream ambitions — a material de-risking event for a development-stage miner. GlobeNewswire: PIPE Closing
• Positive Sentiment: Federal engagement continues: a Commerce Dept. letter-of-intent and reported administration loan/funding support position USAR as a focal point of U.S. rare-earth and chip-supply initiatives — policy backing that underpins long-term demand assumptions. ExecutiveGov: Commerce, USA Rare Earth Collaborate
• Positive Sentiment: Smaller director buy: Director Carolyn Trabuco acquired 1,300 shares at $22.60 — another insider purchase that reinforces management confidence (though size is modest). SEC Filing: Trabuco Purchase
• Neutral Sentiment: Profile pieces (Yahoo/Bloomberg/NYT coverage) frame USAR as a “test case” for U.S.-backed mine-to-magnet supply chains and cite a reported $1.6B federal endorsement — these raise visibility and policy importance but leave commercialization and timelines uncertain. Yahoo Finance: Test Case Article
• Neutral Sentiment: Momentum narratives highlight strong YTD returns and analyst buy ratings/target increases; positive sentiment may already be priced in, increasing sensitivity to execution or policy news. MarketBeat: Coverage & Ratings
• Negative Sentiment: Barron’s reported that the U.S. may rethink rare-earth price-floor support, which sparked a sector selloff and is the clearest near-term negative catalyst weighing on USAR today — policy uncertainty can quickly pressure sentiment for development-stage names. Barron’s: Price-Floor Fears

USA Rare Earth Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $3.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -45.50 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a 50 day moving average of $16.34 and a 200 day moving average of $17.33.

USA Rare Earth (NASDAQ:USAR) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.25) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.06) by ($0.19).

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in USAR. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in USA Rare Earth by 533.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,036,486 shares of the company’s stock valued at $71,834,000 after purchasing an additional 5,083,288 shares during the last quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. boosted its position in shares of USA Rare Earth by 44.0% in the 3rd quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 12,799,325 shares of the company’s stock valued at $219,034,000 after purchasing an additional 3,909,455 shares during the period. Altfest L J & Co. Inc. purchased a new stake in USA Rare Earth in the third quarter valued at approximately $13,554,000. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in USA Rare Earth by 2,437.5% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 653,290 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,160,000 after purchasing an additional 627,545 shares during the period. Finally, Tudor Investment Corp ET AL acquired a new stake in shares of USA Rare Earth during the third quarter worth about $8,304,000.

USA Rare Earth Company Profile

USA Rare Earth (NASDAQ: USAR) is a development-stage critical minerals company focused on advancing a fully integrated rare earth element (REE) and lithium project in the United States. Its flagship asset is the Round Top deposit in West Texas, a large, polymetallic concentration of light and heavy rare earth elements, lithium and other co-products. The company seeks to move this asset through resource delineation, pilot-scale processing and eventual commercial production to address growing domestic demand for secure REE supply chains.

In addition to exploration, USA Rare Earth is engineering an on-site separation facility that will utilize dry magnetic separation and hydrometallurgical flowsheets to produce mixed rare earth carbonates.