Insider Selling: MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) CEO Sells 489,918 Shares of Stock

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) CEO James H. Litinsky sold 489,918 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.77, for a total transaction of $13,115,104.86. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 15,153,158 shares in the company, valued at approximately $405,650,039.66. This trade represents a 3.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.

MP Materials Stock Performance

Shares of MP Materials stock opened at $26.22 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $23.24 and a 200-day moving average of $19.60. MP Materials Corp. has a 1-year low of $10.02 and a 1-year high of $27.29. The company has a current ratio of 6.93, a quick ratio of 6.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88. The company has a market cap of $4.29 billion, a PE ratio of -44.44 and a beta of 2.32.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported ($0.14) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.09) by ($0.05). MP Materials had a negative return on equity of 8.44% and a negative net margin of 32.09%. The firm had revenue of $60.99 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $50.71 million. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that MP Materials Corp. will post -0.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on MP shares. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price target on shares of MP Materials from $23.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on shares of MP Materials from $25.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of MP Materials from $22.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $23.61.

Institutional Trading of MP Materials

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MP. KBC Group NV lifted its holdings in shares of MP Materials by 35.7% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 4,733 shares of the company’s stock worth $84,000 after acquiring an additional 1,246 shares during the period. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in MP Materials by 7.9% in the 3rd quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 70,167 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,238,000 after purchasing an additional 5,123 shares during the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its stake in MP Materials by 197.0% in the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 96,106 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,696,000 after purchasing an additional 63,751 shares during the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC lifted its stake in MP Materials by 806.0% in the 3rd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 42,944 shares of the company’s stock valued at $758,000 after purchasing an additional 38,204 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC lifted its stake in MP Materials by 32.7% in the 3rd quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 1,245,796 shares of the company’s stock valued at $21,988,000 after purchasing an additional 306,933 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 52.55% of the company’s stock.

About MP Materials

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.