MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Trading Down 3% on Insider Selling

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) shares fell 3% during trading on Wednesday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock traded as low as $57.51 and last traded at $57.5430. 3,478,358 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 55% from the average session volume of 7,698,914 shares. The stock had previously closed at $59.30.

Specifically, CFO Ryan Corbett sold 46,000 shares of MP Materials stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total transaction of $2,760,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 129,017 shares in the company, valued at $7,741,020. The trade was a 26.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MP has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of MP Materials in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. TD Securities raised shares of MP Materials to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 9th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of MP Materials from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $68.50 to $71.00 in a research report on Friday, December 5th. BMO Capital Markets raised MP Materials from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $76.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Monday, November 24th. Finally, DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price target on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Wednesday, March 11th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $78.91.

MP Materials Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $9.43 billion, a P/E ratio of -102.34 and a beta of 1.55. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $61.40 and its 200 day simple moving average is $63.07. The company has a quick ratio of 6.67, a current ratio of 7.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

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

Institutional Trading of MP Materials

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MP. Sound Income Strategies LLC increased its holdings in shares of MP Materials by 420.0% in the third quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 364 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 294 shares during the period. Grove Bank & Trust purchased a new stake in MP Materials during the 3rd quarter valued at about $34,000. EMC Capital Management bought a new position in MP Materials during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. bought a new position in MP Materials during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Finally, REAP Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in MP Materials in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. 52.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.