MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Sets New 1-Year Low Following Analyst Downgrade

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP)’s share price reached a new 52-week low on Thursday after Needham & Company LLC lowered their price target on the stock from $81.00 to $73.00. Needham & Company LLC currently has a buy rating on the stock. MP Materials traded as low as $43.71 and last traded at $43.8490, with a volume of 1811366 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $45.68.

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on MP. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $82.00 target price on MP Materials in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Barclays reduced their price target on MP Materials from $69.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Friday, July 17th. DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price objective on shares of MP Materials in a report on Friday, June 5th. Finally, Wedbush raised their target price on MP Materials from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, MP Materials has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $79.42.

Insider Transactions at MP Materials

In related news, CEO James H. Litinsky sold 234,651 shares of the company’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 directly owned 11,855,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $780,952,414.55. This represents a 1.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Ryan Corbett sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 109,017 shares in the company, valued at $8,176,275. This represents a 15.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 905,167 shares of company stock valued at $60,161,837. 8.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of MP Materials

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd grew its position in 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 in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in MP Materials by 3.3% during the fourth 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 MP Materials by 13.2% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,597,885 shares of the company’s stock valued at $333,325,000 after purchasing an additional 769,517 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its stake in MP Materials by 76.3% during the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 2,921,542 shares of the company’s stock worth $97,200,000 after purchasing an additional 1,264,243 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in MP Materials by 71.6% during the fourth 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 52.55% of the company’s stock.

MP Materials Price Performance

The business has a fifty day moving average price of $56.74 and a 200-day moving average price of $59.02. The company has a current ratio of 7.18, a quick ratio of 6.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.94 billion, a PE ratio of -106.21 and a beta of 1.86.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.03 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $90.65 million for 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 company’s revenue was up 49.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($0.12) EPS. Research analysts expect that MP Materials Corp. will post 0.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.