Needham & Company LLC Lowers MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Price Target to $73.00

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) had its target price decreased by Needham & Company LLC from $81.00 to $73.00 in a report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s target price points to a potential upside of 63.65% from the company’s current price.

MP has been the subject of a number of other reports. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $82.00 target price on MP Materials in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Barclays dropped their price target on MP Materials from $69.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of MP Materials in a report on Friday, July 17th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on MP Materials from $70.00 to $71.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on MP Materials from $70.00 to $61.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $79.42.

MP Materials Trading Down 2.3%

MP Materials stock opened at $44.61 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $56.74 and its 200-day moving average is $59.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 6.58 and a current ratio of 7.18. MP Materials has a 1 year low of $43.71 and a 1 year high of $100.25. The company has a market cap of $7.94 billion, a P/E ratio of -106.21 and a beta of 1.86.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at MP Materials

In other MP Materials news, COO Michael Stuart Rosenthal acquired 10,000 shares of MP Materials stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 9th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $54.30 per share, for a total transaction of $543,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 136,622 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,418,574.60. This represents a 7.90% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Ryan Corbett sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total value of $1,500,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 109,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,176,275. This trade 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 have sold 905,167 shares of company stock worth $60,161,837. 8.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MP. EMC Capital Management acquired a new position in shares of MP Materials during the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. acquired a new stake in MP Materials in the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. REAP Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in MP Materials in the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC bought a new position in MP Materials in the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Financial Consulate Inc. grew its position in MP Materials by 555.3% in the 4th quarter. Financial Consulate Inc. now owns 557 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 472 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.