MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Stock Price Down 3.2% – Time to Sell?

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP)’s share price traded down 3.2% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $54.51 and last traded at $54.8690. 5,062,911 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 28% from the average session volume of 7,034,795 shares. The stock had previously closed at $56.67.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. TD Securities raised MP Materials to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Wedbush increased their price objective on MP Materials from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $82.00 price objective on MP Materials in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price objective on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Wednesday, March 11th. Two equities research 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 an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $81.00.

MP Materials Stock Down 3.2%

The company has a quick ratio of 6.58, a current ratio of 7.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The company has a market capitalization of $9.77 billion, a P/E ratio of -130.64 and a beta of 1.90. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $58.77 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $59.27.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.03 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 2.27% and a negative net margin of 28.00%.MP Materials’s revenue was up 49.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.12) earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that MP Materials Corp. will post 0.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Ryan Corbett sold 46,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total value of $2,760,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 129,017 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,741,020. This represents 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. Also, CEO James H. Litinsky sold 259,179 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.03, for a total value of $16,595,231.37. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 12,505,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $800,756,938.95. The trade was a 2.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 666,000 shares of company stock valued at $43,103,382 over the last 90 days. 8.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC acquired a new position in MP Materials during the third quarter worth $670,000. Private Advisory Group LLC acquired a new position in MP Materials during the fourth quarter worth $9,702,000. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in MP Materials during the third quarter worth $550,000. Pier 88 Investment Partners LLC acquired a new position in MP Materials during the third quarter worth $1,089,000. Finally, Polianta Ltd acquired a new position in MP Materials during the fourth quarter worth $1,227,000. 52.55% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.