Analysts Set MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) PT at $78.91

Shares of MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) have been assigned an average rating of “Buy” from the sixteen research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, thirteen have given a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $78.9091.

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on MP shares. Wall Street Zen raised shares of MP Materials from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, March 8th. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price target on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of MP Materials from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $68.50 to $71.00 in a report on Friday, December 5th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of MP Materials from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $76.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Monday, November 24th. Finally, TD Securities raised shares of MP Materials to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 9th.

Insider Activity at MP Materials

In other MP Materials news, CFO Ryan Corbett sold 46,000 shares of MP Materials stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 17th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $7,741,020. The trade was a 26.28% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO James H. Litinsky sold 272,600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.17, for a total value of $17,492,742.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 12,805,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $821,758,774.05. This represents a 2.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders sold 346,000 shares of company stock worth $22,006,616. 9.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of MP Materials

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Corient Private Wealth LLC lifted its stake in MP Materials by 83.0% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 39,047 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,972,000 after acquiring an additional 17,708 shares during the period. EMC Capital Management purchased a new position in MP Materials during the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. WMS Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of MP Materials in the 4th quarter valued at about $557,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd lifted its position in shares of MP Materials by 26,018.9% in the 4th quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 9,664 shares of the company’s stock worth $488,000 after purchasing an additional 9,627 shares during the period. Finally, Sit Investment Associates Inc. lifted its position in shares of MP Materials by 7.2% in the 4th quarter. Sit Investment Associates Inc. now owns 59,375 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,000,000 after purchasing an additional 4,000 shares during the period. 52.55% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

MP Materials Price Performance

Shares of MP stock opened at $53.22 on Friday. MP Materials has a 52-week low of $18.64 and a 52-week high of $100.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 6.67 and a current ratio of 7.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.43 billion, a P/E ratio of -102.34 and a beta of 1.55. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $61.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $63.07.

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

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.