MP Materials (NYSE:MP) CFO Sells $2,760,000.00 in Stock

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) CFO Ryan Corbett sold 46,000 shares of MP Materials stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total transaction of $2,760,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 129,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,741,020. This trade represents a 26.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

MP Materials Stock Performance

NYSE:MP opened at $53.22 on Friday. MP Materials Corp. has a 12 month low of $18.64 and a 12 month high of $100.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 7.24 and a quick ratio of 6.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.43 billion, a PE ratio of -102.34 and a beta of 1.55. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $61.40 and its 200 day moving average price is $63.07.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $52.69 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $76.06 million. MP Materials had a negative return on equity of 4.28% and a negative net margin of 38.26%.MP Materials’s revenue for the quarter was down 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.12) EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that MP Materials Corp. will post -0.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on MP. TD Securities upgraded MP Materials to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of MP Materials from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $68.50 to $71.00 in a research report on Friday, December 5th. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 target price on shares of MP Materials in a report on Wednesday, March 11th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised shares of MP Materials from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $76.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Monday, November 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $78.91.

Institutional Trading of MP Materials

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in MP. Costello Asset Management INC increased its position in MP Materials by 15.0% during the fourth quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 1,300 shares of the company’s stock worth $66,000 after buying an additional 170 shares during the period. Composition Wealth LLC lifted its stake in MP Materials by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Composition Wealth LLC now owns 18,334 shares of the company’s stock valued at $926,000 after buying an additional 172 shares during the last quarter. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MP Materials by 28.1% in the third quarter. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC now owns 806 shares of the company’s stock valued at $54,000 after acquiring an additional 177 shares during the period. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of MP Materials by 1.0% during the third quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC now owns 18,162 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,218,000 after acquiring an additional 188 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wedmont Private Capital grew its position in shares of MP Materials by 1.7% during the third quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 11,824 shares of the company’s stock worth $872,000 after acquiring an additional 195 shares during the last quarter. 52.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.