Piedmont Lithium Inc. (NASDAQ: PLL) stock jumped 18.98% on Friday to $66.70 against a previous-day closing price of $56.06. With 1.79 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained heavier than its average volume of 0.48 million shares. During the session, the Other Industrial Metals & Mining company that operates in wider Basic Materials sector, reached to the highest price of $68.80 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $57.61. The 52-week range on PLL shows that it touched its highest point at $79.99 and its lowest point at $32.08 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $101.83.
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Price Performance and Earnings:
Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of PLL was up-trending over the past week, with a rise of 41.49%, but this was up by 101.45% over a month. Three-month performance surged to 43.32% while six-month performance rose 30.89%. The stock gained 3.33% in the past year, while it has gained 27.14% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for PLL yields -0.02 with Next year EPS estimates of 1.14.
Float and Shares Shorts:
On Jul 14, 2022, short shares totaled 2.45 million, which was 13.64% higher than short shares on Jun 14, 2022. In addition to Mr. Keith Douglas Phillips B.Com., H.B.Com, MBA as the firm’s MD, CEO, Pres & Director, Mr. Michael D. White serves as its Exec. VP & CFO.
Institutional Ownership:
Through their ownership of 39.25% of PLL’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have minority control over the company. Other institutions hold 6.19% of PLL, in contrast to 28.83% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 23.35%. As the largest shareholder in PLL with 6.41% of the stake, SSgA Funds Management, Inc. holds 1,149,201 shares worth 1,149,201. A second-largest stockholder of PLL, BlackRock Fund Advisors, holds 1,100,721 shares, controlling over 6.14% of the firm’s shares. The Vanguard Group, Inc. is the third largest shareholder in PLL, holding 902,650 shares or 5.03% stake. With a 6.25% stake in PLL, the SPDR S&P Metals & Mining ETF is the largest stakeholder. A total of 1,120,629 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, which owns about 2.79% of PLL stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 499,888 shares valued at 22.6 million. VanEck Rare Earth/Strategic Metal holds 2.14% of the stake in PLL, owning 384,223 shares worth 17.37 million.
Analysts Ratings:
Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for PLL since 7 analysts follow the stock currently. There are 7 analysts who recommend BUY ratings, while 0 suggest SELL ratings. Of the remaining analysts, 0 believe that the stock is worth HOLDING, 0 give it an OVERWEIGHT rating, and 0 thinks that it’s UNDERWEIGHT. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With PLL analysts setting a high price target of $132.00 and a low target of $85.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $100.21. Based on these targets, PLL could surge 97.9% to reach the target high and rise by 27.44% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 50.24% from current levels.
EPS: Estimates vs Actual
It is also common to use earnings estimates to evaluate a firm’s growth potential and to determine trading strategy. PLL will report FY 2022 earnings on 03/01/2023. Analysts have provided yearly estimates in a range of -$1.54 being high and -$2.69 being low. For PLL, this leads to a yearly average estimate of -$2.05. The earnings surprise of a firm occurs when the actual results change from the consensus earnings estimate. Piedmont Lithium Inc. surprised analysts by -$0.12 when it reported -$0.57 EPS against a consensus estimate of -$0.45. The surprise factor in the prior quarter was -$0.18. Based on analyst estimates, the high estimate for the next quarter is -$0.33 and the low estimate is -$0.71. The average estimate for the next quarter is thus -$0.57.
Summary of Insider Activity:
Insiders traded PLL stock several times over the past three months with 5 Buys and 5 Sells. In these transactions, 37,700 shares were bought while 20,833 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 24 while that of sell transactions has risen to 14 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 92,429 while 31,894 shares were sold.
