MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Stock Price Up 6.9% After Analyst Upgrade

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) was up 6.9% during trading on Wednesday after Robert W. Baird raised their price target on the stock from $30.00 to $38.00. Robert W. Baird currently has an outperform rating on the stock. MP Materials traded as high as $39.10 and last traded at $37.93. Approximately 9,244,007 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 51% from the average daily volume of 6,126,690 shares. The stock had previously closed at $35.48.

A number of other research firms have also commented on MP. Morgan Stanley upgraded MP Materials from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $23.00 to $34.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on MP Materials from $21.00 to $18.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 12th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on MP Materials from $22.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, DA Davidson upped their target price on MP Materials from $25.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, MP Materials currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $27.06.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO James H. Litinsky sold 199,180 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.08, for a total transaction of $5,393,794.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,643,076 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $369,454,498.08. This represents a 1.44% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 9.50% 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. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of MP Materials in the fourth quarter worth approximately $6,284,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of MP Materials in the fourth quarter worth approximately $399,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new stake in shares of MP Materials in the fourth quarter worth approximately $388,000. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of MP Materials by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,118,580 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,050,000 after purchasing an additional 7,453 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New York State Teachers Retirement System raised its stake in shares of MP Materials by 7.3% in the fourth quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 99,900 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,558,000 after purchasing an additional 6,800 shares during the last quarter. 52.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

MP Materials Trading Up 4.8%

The stock has a market capitalization of $6.08 billion, a PE ratio of -57.22 and a beta of 2.14. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $24.27 and a 200 day moving average price of $22.79. The company has a quick ratio of 3.58, a current ratio of 4.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported ($0.12) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.10) by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $60.81 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.74 million. MP Materials had a negative net margin of 48.41% and a negative return on equity of 9.77%. The business’s revenue was up 24.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($0.04) earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that MP Materials Corp. will post -0.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MP Materials Company Profile

MP Materials Corp., together with its subsidiaries, produces rare earth materials. The company owns and operates the Mountain Pass Rare Earth mine and processing facility in North America. It holds the mineral rights to the Mountain Pass mine and surrounding areas, as well as intellectual property rights related to the processing and development of rare earth minerals.