Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Acquires Shares of 39,100 MP Materials Corp. $MP

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new position in MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 39,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,887,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MP. Costello Asset Management INC raised its position in shares of MP Materials by 15.0% during the 4th quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 1,300 shares of the company’s stock valued at $66,000 after buying an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. Composition Wealth LLC grew its position in MP Materials by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Composition Wealth LLC now owns 18,334 shares of the company’s stock worth $926,000 after acquiring an additional 172 shares in the last quarter. ARS Investment Partners LLC increased its stake in MP Materials by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. ARS Investment Partners LLC now owns 19,980 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,009,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC increased its stake in MP Materials by 1.0% during the second quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 21,444 shares of the company’s stock worth $713,000 after acquiring an additional 204 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC raised its position in MP Materials by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC now owns 12,232 shares of the company’s stock valued at $618,000 after purchasing an additional 212 shares during the period. 52.55% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price objective on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Needham & Company LLC started coverage on MP Materials in a research report on Monday, June 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $81.00 target price on the stock. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on MP Materials from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. Wall Street Zen upgraded MP Materials from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, March 8th. Finally, William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, MP Materials has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $80.14.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other MP Materials news, CFO Ryan Corbett sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total transaction of $1,500,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 109,017 shares in the company, valued at $8,176,275. This represents a 15.50% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO James H. Litinsky sold 259,179 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.03, for a total transaction of $16,595,231.37. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 12,505,965 shares in the company, valued at $800,756,938.95. This trade represents a 2.03% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 1,205,167 shares of company stock worth $79,371,654 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 8.20% of the company’s stock.

MP Materials Price Performance

Shares of MP stock opened at $56.12 on Wednesday. MP Materials Corp. has a twelve month low of $29.58 and a twelve month high of $100.25. The company has a current ratio of 7.18, a quick ratio of 6.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $62.13 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $59.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -133.61 and a beta of 1.86.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.03 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $90.65 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $74.82 million. MP Materials had a negative return on equity of 2.27% and a negative net margin of 28.00%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 49.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.12) earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that MP Materials Corp. will post -0.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MP Materials Company Profile

MP Materials Corporation operates as a vertically integrated producer of rare earth materials in North America. The company owns and manages the Mountain Pass Rare Earth Mine and Processing Facility in California, the only commercially viable rare earth mining and processing site in the United States. MP Materials extracts, separates and refines critical rare earth elements—such as neodymium, praseodymium, and cerium—which are essential inputs for permanent magnets used in electric vehicles, wind turbines, and various defense applications.

The Mountain Pass mine first began commercial rare earth production in the 1950s and was later operated by Molycorp until its bankruptcy in 2015.