By Al Root

Shares of rare earth company MP Materials rose early Friday after catching a new Buy rating on Wall Street. The move, however, doesn't match what happened on Thursday.

Barclays analyst Richard Garchitorena launched coverage of MP on Thursday evening with a Buy rating and $69 price target, according to ratings aggregators. Barron's hasn't seen a copy of the report. Barclays didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Now, 18 analysts cover MP stock. All 18 rate shares Buy. The average Buy-rating ratio for stocks in the0 S&P 500 ranges from about 55% to 60%. The average analyst price target for MP stock is about $80.

MP stock was up 5.1% in early trading at $64.85 a share, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.6% and 0.7%, respectively.

Shares jumped 9.3% on Thursday. The reason isn't easy to suss out. The sector rallied. USA Rare Earth stock also jumped 7.6%. Ramaco Resources stock added 5.4%, and Rare Earths Americas share gained 3.5%.

Shares of rare earth processor Neo Performance Materials, however, dropped 7.6% to $28.66. on Thursday, after the company essentially sold its stake in a Greenland rare earth project to Greenland Mines for $35 million.

Investors might have wanted a higher price. But the price paid for a development-stage rare earth product didn't hurt the rest of the sector. It seemed to help. Pushing down Neo shares was also a capital raise at $28.75.

Neo bought the project in 2022 for about $3.5 million. It did manage to make roughly 10x on its money in a few years, which shows what's happened to rare earth markets.

The U.S. government is focused on breaking the Chinese near-monoply in rare earth production and processing. Various government branches have entered into agreements with several companies to boost production. Some of the incentives offered have included price floors for rare earth products and equity.

The deals have transformed the sector, which is why mining companies are looking for new resources. They are also why MP stock was up 222% over the past year, through early trading Friday.

Gains like that typically lead to higher stock volatility, which might be the best explanation for Thursday trading.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

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May 22, 2026 10:40 ET (14:40 GMT)

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