The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) isn't having a great start to trading this Thursday. The ASX 200 is currently down 0.62% today so far, sitting at 7,455.7 points at the time of writing. However, one ASX 200 constituent is faring far worse. That would be the Mineral Resources Limited (ASX: MIN) share price.
Yes, Mineral Resources shares are currently down a nasty 8.39% to $51.30 a share. This follows yesterday's loss of 2.4%, and Tuesday's loss of 4.5% before that. Yes, the Mineral Resources shares price has now lost 16.4% of its value just this week alone.
However, don't feel too sorry for shareholders. Mineral Resources shares are still up a very healthy 35.91% year to date in 2021 so far and a staggering 85.63% over the past 12 months. Over the past 5 years, the company is up a phenomenal 371%.
So why has this high-flying ASX resources share had such a tough week or so?
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Digging into earnings
Well, these losses seem to stem from the FY21 earnings report Mineral Resources delivered last Wednesday. Although the initial market reaction was positive, with the company rising more than 2% in the few days following the release, investors seem to have gotten cold feet since.
So last Wednesday, Mineral Resources reported some impressive numbers. Revenues were up 76% to $3.73 billion, while underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by148% to $1.9 billion. That helped push net profits after tax up by an incredible 230% to $1.1 billion.
These strong numbers enabled the company to bump its dividends as well. Mineral Resources' full year dividends for FY21 came in at $2.75 per share, up an impressive 175%.
But it appears these numbers aren't enough to stop investors from getting some post-earnings cold feet on this one.
Could the Mineral Resources share price be a buy today?
So could the Mineral Resources shares be a buy today? Well, as my Fool colleague James reported this morning, investment bank Macquarie is one broker who thinks it might be.
Macquarie currently rates Mineral Resources share price as a 'outperform' and has recently raised its 12-month share price target for the company to $74. That implies a beefy potential upside of just over 43% on current pricing.
Macquarie reckons Mineral Resources will be able to keep raising its dividends in the years ahead and estimated its shareholder payouts will hit $2.04 a share by FY2023.
At the current Mineral Resources share price, the company has a market capitalisation of $9.6 billion, a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 7.56, and a trailing dividend yield of 5.3%.
