MP Materials (MP) Competitors

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) and Lithium Americas (NYSE:LAC) are both mid-cap basic materials companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, community ranking, risk, earnings, profitability, media sentiment, institutional ownership, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer MP or LAC?

Lithium Americas received 109 more outperform votes than MP Materials when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 69.23% of users gave MP Materials an outperform vote while only 60.87% of users gave Lithium Americas an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
MP Materials	Outperform Votes 45 69.23%	Underperform Votes 20 30.77%
Lithium Americas	Outperform Votes 154 60.87%	Underperform Votes 99 39.13%

Do analysts prefer MP or LAC?

MP Materials currently has a consensus target price of $34.14, suggesting a potential upside of 78.76%. Lithium Americas has a consensus target price of $34.78, suggesting a potential upside of 104.45%. Given Lithium Americas' higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Lithium Americas is more favorable than MP Materials.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MP Materials	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Lithium Americas	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Which has stronger valuation & earnings, MP or LAC?

MP Materials has higher revenue and earnings than Lithium Americas. Lithium Americas is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than MP Materials, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MP Materials	$527.51M	6.43	$289M	$0.93	20.54
Lithium Americas	N/A	N/A	-$93.57M	-$0.11	-154.62

Is MP or LAC more profitable?

MP Materials has a net margin of 46.38% compared to Lithium Americas' net margin of 0.00%. MP Materials' return on equity of 14.63% beat Lithium Americas' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MP Materials	46.38%	14.63%	8.57%
Lithium Americas	N/A	-3.46%	-2.74%

Which has more volatility and risk, MP or LAC?

MP Materials has a beta of 2.66, suggesting that its share price is 166% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lithium Americas has a beta of 1.46, suggesting that its share price is 46% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do insiders & institutionals believe in MP or LAC?

59.4% of MP Materials shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 27.3% of Lithium Americas shares are owned by institutional investors. 33.9% of MP Materials shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 19.8% of Lithium Americas shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Does the media refer more to MP or LAC?

In the previous week, Lithium Americas had 9 more articles in the media than MP Materials. MarketBeat recorded 16 mentions for Lithium Americas and 7 mentions for MP Materials. MP Materials' average media sentiment score of 0.91 beat Lithium Americas' score of -0.15 indicating that MP Materials is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
MP Materials	4 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Lithium Americas	3 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Summary

MP Materials beats Lithium Americas on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.