MP Materials Corp. $MP Shares Sold by Maryland State Retirement & Pension System

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lowered its holdings in shares of MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) by 84.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 6,509 shares of the company’s stock after selling 34,898 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in MP Materials were worth $437,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Calamos Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of MP Materials during the third quarter valued at $16,726,000. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. raised its holdings in MP Materials by 132.7% during the 2nd quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 176,984 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,888,000 after buying an additional 100,915 shares during the period. Ballentine Partners LLC purchased a new stake in MP Materials during the second quarter valued at about $241,000. Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC acquired a new position in shares of MP Materials in the third quarter worth about $670,000. Finally, Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of MP Materials in the third quarter worth about $550,000. Institutional investors own 52.55% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other MP Materials news, CEO James H. Litinsky sold 272,600 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.17, for a total transaction of $17,492,742.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 12,805,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $821,758,774.05. This represents a 2.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Ryan Corbett sold 38,146 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total value of $2,288,760.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 156,666 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,399,960. This represents a 19.58% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 991,557 shares of company stock valued at $62,785,202 over the last quarter. 9.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on MP. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of MP Materials from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $68.00 to $71.00 in a research report on Monday, November 10th. William Blair initiated coverage on MP Materials in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. DA Davidson reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price target on shares of MP Materials in a report on Thursday, November 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on MP Materials in a research note on Wednesday, November 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $77.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Bank of America lifted their target price on MP Materials from $78.00 to $112.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, MP Materials has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.91.

MP Materials Trading Up 1.7%

Shares of NYSE MP opened at $69.56 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $59.21 and a 200 day simple moving average of $64.08. MP Materials Corp. has a 52 week low of $18.64 and a 52 week high of $100.25. The stock has a market cap of $12.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -97.97 and a beta of 1.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 7.51 and a current ratio of 8.05.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.10) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.15) by $0.05. MP Materials had a negative net margin of 50.55% and a negative return on equity of 7.69%. The firm had revenue of $53.55 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $49.72 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.12) earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 14.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that MP Materials Corp. will post -0.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MP Materials 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.