MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Shares Down 1.4% After Analyst Downgrade

Shares of MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) fell 1.4% during trading on Wednesday 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 $45.37 and last traded at $45.6550. Approximately 3,985,217 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 39% from the average session volume of 6,577,801 shares. The stock had previously closed at $46.30.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Barclays decreased their price objective on MP Materials from $69.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $82.00 price target on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price target on shares of MP Materials from $70.00 to $61.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, Wedbush increased their price objective on shares of MP Materials from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $79.42.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Michael Stuart Rosenthal bought 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 9th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $54.30 per share, for a total transaction of $543,000.00. Following the acquisition, the chief operating officer owned 136,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,418,574.60. The trade was a 7.90% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO James H. Litinsky sold 185,167 shares of MP Materials stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.14, for a total transaction of $12,802,446.38. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,620,798 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $803,461,973.72. This represents a 1.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 905,167 shares of company stock valued at $60,161,837. 8.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its stake in shares of MP Materials by 26.5% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 234,185 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,716,000 after acquiring an additional 49,052 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC bought a new position in MP Materials in the 1st quarter valued at $215,000. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in MP Materials in the first quarter worth $219,000. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its stake in MP Materials by 4.6% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 10,793 shares of the company’s stock worth $265,000 after purchasing an additional 479 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in MP Materials by 36.0% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 193,943 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,734,000 after purchasing an additional 51,348 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 52.55% of the company’s stock.

MP Materials Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $7.94 billion, a P/E ratio of -106.21 and a beta of 1.86. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $56.74 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $59.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 7.18 and a quick ratio of 6.58.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.03 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01) by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $90.65 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $74.82 million. MP Materials had a negative net margin of 28.00% and a negative return on equity of 2.27%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 49.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.12) earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast 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.