Traders Purchase Large Volume of MP Materials Call Options (NYSE:MP)

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Traders purchased 8,631 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 171% compared to the average volume of 3,190 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other MP Materials news, COO Michael Stuart Rosenthal purchased 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $10.84 per share, for a total transaction of $325,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 1,402,975 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,208,249. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 12.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MP. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new position in MP Materials in the 2nd quarter worth $100,000. Sycomore Asset Management raised its holdings in MP Materials by 27.8% in the 2nd quarter. Sycomore Asset Management now owns 37,180 shares of the company’s stock worth $468,000 after acquiring an additional 8,083 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its holdings in MP Materials by 26.3% in the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 847,240 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,785,000 after acquiring an additional 176,219 shares during the period. Aurora Investment Counsel raised its holdings in MP Materials by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel now owns 66,153 shares of the company’s stock worth $842,000 after acquiring an additional 1,122 shares during the period. Finally, Regal Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in MP Materials by 64.6% in the 2nd quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC now owns 20,147 shares of the company’s stock worth $256,000 after acquiring an additional 7,906 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 52.55% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MP has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price objective on shares of MP Materials from $13.50 to $12.50 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Canaccord Genuity Group decreased their price objective on shares of MP Materials from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of MP Materials from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Monday, July 15th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $16.50 price objective for the company. Finally, Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $30.00 price objective on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $20.11.

MP Materials Stock Up 9.3 %

Shares of MP Materials stock traded up $1.33 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $15.56. 1,707,984 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,327,769. The company has a market cap of $2.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -104.53 and a beta of 2.22. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $13.08 and its 200 day simple moving average is $14.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 6.17 and a current ratio of 6.90. MP Materials has a 52 week low of $10.02 and a 52 week high of $20.85.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported ($0.17) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.09) by ($0.08). The business had revenue of $31.26 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.03 million. MP Materials had a negative net margin of 21.94% and a negative return on equity of 4.28%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 51.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.07 EPS. Equities analysts expect that MP Materials will post -0.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MP Materials declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, September 3rd that allows the company to buyback $300.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 13.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.