MP Materials (NYSE:MP) Stock Price Up 2.5% - Should You Buy?

Key Points

• MP Materials shares rose 2.5% on Tuesday, trading as high as $56.25, though volume was below average at 3.29 million shares versus a 6.79 million average.
• Recent analyst coverage has been broadly bullish, with multiple firms raising price targets and the stock carrying a consensus Buy rating and an average target price of $80.14.
• The company beat Q1 earnings expectations with $0.03 EPS and revenue of $90.65 million, while insiders showed mixed activity: the COO bought shares, but the CFO sold stock and insiders have net sold heavily over the past three months.

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP - Get Free Report) was up 2.5% on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $56.25 and last traded at $56.1150. 3,294,880 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 51% from the average session volume of 6,791,949 shares. The stock had previously closed at $54.74.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on MP. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $82.00 target price on MP Materials in a report on Friday, May 8th. William Blair reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on MP Materials from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Needham & Company LLC assumed coverage on MP Materials in a research note on Monday, June 1st. They set a "buy" rating and a $81.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Barclays began coverage on shares of MP Materials in a report on Thursday, May 21st. They issued an "overweight" rating and a $69.00 target price on the stock. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $80.14.

MP Materials Trading Up 2.5%

The stock has a market capitalization of $9.99 billion, a P/E ratio of -133.61 and a beta of 1.86. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $62.23 and its 200 day moving average price is $59.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 7.18 and a quick ratio of 6.58.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.01) by $0.04. The company 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%. MP Materials's revenue for the quarter was up 49.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.12) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that MP Materials Corp. will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at MP Materials

In other MP Materials news, COO Michael Stuart Rosenthal acquired 10,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 9th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $54.30 per share, for a total transaction of $543,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 136,622 shares in the company, valued at $7,418,574.60. This represents a 7.90% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Ryan Corbett sold 20,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total value of $1,500,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 109,017 shares in the company, valued at $8,176,275. This trade represents a 15.50% 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. In the last three months, insiders have sold 1,205,167 shares of company stock worth $79,371,654. 8.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of MP Materials during the fourth quarter valued at about $82,531,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in MP Materials by 76.3% in the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 2,921,542 shares of the company's stock worth $97,200,000 after buying an additional 1,264,243 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in MP Materials by 71.6% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,834,914 shares of the company's stock worth $143,220,000 after buying an additional 1,183,307 shares during the period. Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd lifted its holdings in MP Materials by 7.2% in the third quarter. Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd now owns 14,861,212 shares of the company's stock worth $996,741,000 after buying an additional 1,000,000 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi boosted its position in MP Materials by 1,320.8% during the 3rd quarter. Amundi now owns 954,317 shares of the company's stock valued at $70,934,000 after acquiring an additional 887,148 shares in the last quarter. 52.55% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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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