MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Stock Price Up 1% - Time to Buy?

Key Points

• MP Materials shares rose about 1% to $57.38 (intraday high $58.40) on Tuesday on light volume of ~3.5M shares, down roughly 51% from its average daily volume.
• Wall Street has a consensus Buy rating with a mean price target of $78.09, amid mixed analyst moves including TD Securities' upgrade to "strong-buy" and Morgan Stanley's cut of its target to $62 while keeping an "overweight" view.
• Quarterly results showed an EPS beat ($0.09 vs. $0.02) but a revenue miss ($52.7M vs. $76.1M), a -38.3% net margin and a 13.6% YoY revenue decline; the CFO also sold 46,000 shares, trimming his stake by about 26%.

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP - Get Free Report)'s stock price rose 1% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $58.40 and last traded at $57.38. Approximately 3,495,809 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 51% from the average daily volume of 7,183,071 shares. The stock had previously closed at $56.80.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MP has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. TD Securities upgraded MP Materials to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Wall Street Zen upgraded MP Materials from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Sunday, March 8th. DA Davidson restated a "buy" rating and set a $82.00 target price on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Wednesday, March 11th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on MP Materials from $71.00 to $62.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Finally, William Blair restated an "outperform" rating on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, MP Materials has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $78.09.

MP Materials Stock Up 1.0%

The company's 50 day moving average price is $56.69 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $61.07. The company has a quick ratio of 6.67, a current ratio of 7.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The stock has a market cap of $10.19 billion, a P/E ratio of -110.35 and a beta of 1.67.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.02 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $52.69 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $76.06 million. MP Materials had a negative net margin of 38.26% and a negative return on equity of 4.28%. MP Materials's revenue for the quarter was down 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.12) earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that MP Materials Corp. will post -0.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Ryan Corbett sold 46,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 17th. The shares were 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 owned 129,017 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,741,020. The trade was a 26.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 9.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MP Materials

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Costello Asset Management INC raised its stake in MP Materials by 15.0% in the fourth quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 1,300 shares of the company's stock worth $66,000 after buying an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. Composition Wealth LLC raised its stake in MP Materials by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Composition Wealth LLC now owns 18,334 shares of the company's stock worth $926,000 after buying an additional 172 shares in the last quarter. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC raised its stake in MP Materials by 28.1% in the third quarter. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC now owns 806 shares of the company's stock worth $54,000 after buying an additional 177 shares in the last quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC raised its stake in MP Materials by 1.0% in the third quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC now owns 18,162 shares of the company's stock worth $1,218,000 after buying an additional 188 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wedmont Private Capital raised its stake in MP Materials by 1.7% in the third quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 11,824 shares of the company's stock worth $872,000 after buying an additional 195 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 52.55% of the company's stock.

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.

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