James Litinsky Sells 50,000 Shares of MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Stock

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) CEO James Litinsky sold 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.58, for a total value of $3,229,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,805,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $762,429,219.70. This trade represents a 0.42% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link.

MP Materials Price Performance

MP Materials stock opened at $64.57 on Friday. MP Materials Corp. has a one year low of $19.60 and a one year high of $100.25. 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 business has a fifty day moving average of $59.36 and a two-hundred day moving average of $59.52. The company has a market cap of $11.50 billion, a P/E ratio of -153.75 and a beta of 1.90.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01) by $0.04. MP Materials had a negative return on equity of 2.27% and a negative net margin of 28.00%.The business had revenue of $90.65 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $74.82 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.12) earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 49.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that MP Materials Corp. will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MP has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. TD Securities upgraded MP Materials to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Barclays initiated coverage on MP Materials in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $69.00 price target for the company. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $80.08.

Institutional Trading of MP Materials

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Private Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in MP Materials during the 4th quarter worth about $9,702,000. Polianta Ltd purchased a new stake in MP Materials during the 4th quarter worth about $1,227,000. Retirement Systems of Alabama purchased a new stake in MP Materials in the 3rd quarter valued at about $10,915,000. South Dakota Investment Council purchased a new stake in MP Materials in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,617,000. Finally, Dorsey Wright & Associates grew its holdings in MP Materials by 84.1% in the 3rd quarter. Dorsey Wright & Associates now owns 118,252 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,931,000 after buying an additional 54,031 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 52.55% of the company’s stock.

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.