MP Materials stock fell 4.7% to $56.26 on Friday, with the stock hitting an intraday low of $55.64. Trading volume came in at around 4.87 million, down 27% from its average daily volume of 6.65 million.
The stock had previously closed at $59.03. The drop comes as investors weigh a mix of strong revenue growth against continued losses and recent insider selling.
MP Materials reported Q2 earnings on August 6th. Revenue came in at $108.49 million, beating analyst estimates of $96.89 million and up 89% from the same quarter last year.
EPS matched expectations at -$0.01, an improvement from -$0.13 in Q2 of last year. Despite the revenue beat, the company still posted a negative net margin of 19.85% and a negative return on equity of 1.21%.
Analysts expect full-year EPS of -$0.12 for the current fiscal year.
CEO James Litinsky sold 185,167 stock units at an average price of $69.14 on June 3rd, bringing in roughly $12.8 million. After the sale, Litinsky still held 11.62 million units in the company, valued at around $803 million.
The sale represented a 1.57% reduction in his position. Insiders collectively own 8.2% of the company.
On the buy side, COO Michael Rosenthal purchased 10,000 units at $54.30 per unit on June 9th, spending $543,000. That increased his holding by 7.9% to 136,622 units.
The stock carries a “Moderate Buy” consensus rating. Of the analysts covering it, two rate it Strong Buy, thirteen rate it Buy, and two rate it Sell.
The average price target sits at $78.21, well above Friday’s close. Needham cut its target from $81 to $73 on July 22nd, while Deutsche Bank trimmed its target from $70 to $61 on July 9th, though both kept Buy ratings.
Morgan Stanley reaffirmed its Overweight rating on August 19th. Citigroup reiterated a Positive rating on July 15th. Weiss Ratings and Wall Street Zen both carry Sell ratings on the stock.
VanEck trimmed its position by 0.5% during Q2, selling 23,214 units and retaining 4.57 million units worth approximately $255.7 million. Institutional investors as a group own 52.55% of the company.
The stock has a 52-week low of $37.81 and a 52-week high of $100.25. Its 50-day moving average is $51.75 and the 200-day moving average is $56.82.
MP Materials has a market cap of $10.02 billion, a beta of 1.88, and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The current ratio stands at 9.51 and quick ratio at 8.56.
Morgan Stanley’s Overweight reaffirmation on August 19th was the most recent analyst action before Friday’s decline.
The post MP Materials (MP) Stock: CEO Cashes Out $12.8M — But Analysts Still See 39% Upside appeared first on CoinCentral.
