The Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX: MIN) share price is pushing upwards on Wednesday afternoon. This comes despite the mining services company keeping a quiet front on the news releases this week.
At the time of writing, Mineral Resources shares are up 3.19% to $51.71 apiece. In comparison, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is down 0.24% to 7,337.6 points.
Let's take a closer look and see what's driving Minerals Resources shares higher today.
A positive outlook on Mineral Resources shares
Investors appear to be upbeat about the company's prospects, sending the Mineral Resources share price to a 3-month high.
While the company hasn't released any news over the last few days, it did receive attention from a couple of brokers today.
Analysts at Macquarie raised its 12-month price target by 10% to a bullish $79 per share.
Following suit, Swiss investment house, UBS also lifted its outlook on Mineral Resources shares by 20% to $54.15. Based on the current share price, this implies an upside of almost 5% for investors.
The price of iron ore has rallied since hitting a 52-week low of US$91.98 last month. Currently, the steel-making ingredient is fetching for US$113.64 per tonne, an improvement of 23% over the short time period.
In addition, the price of lithium carbonate has soared to 242,500 Chinese yuan per metric tonne (roughly A$53,245). This represents an increase of close to 80% in the past year.
Demand for the electric vehicle market has accelerated in recent times following a global push by world governments to lower carbon emissions. To put that into perspective, electric vehicle deliveries in China are expected to total 3 million units this year, more than double of last year's. Furthermore, this is anticipated to reach 5 million sales in 2022 alone.
Mineral Resources share price snapshot
Over the past 12 months, Mineral Resources shares have gone strength to strength, rising 50%. In 2021 alone, its shares are travelling 40% higher on the back of rebounding iron ore and lithium prices.
On valuation grounds, Mineral Resources presides a market capitalisation of roughly $9.82 billion, with approximately 188.85 million shares outstanding.
