California State Teachers Retirement System Boosts Stake in MP Materials Corp. $MP

California State Teachers Retirement System grew its position in shares of MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) by 22.7% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 164,054 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 30,326 shares during the quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in MP Materials were worth $7,917,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of MP Materials during the 4th quarter worth $82,531,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its stake in shares of MP Materials by 76.3% in the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 2,921,542 shares of the company’s stock worth $97,200,000 after purchasing an additional 1,264,243 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in shares of MP Materials by 71.6% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,834,914 shares of the company’s stock valued at $143,220,000 after purchasing an additional 1,183,307 shares during the period. Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd raised its position in shares of MP Materials by 7.2% in the third quarter. Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd now owns 14,861,212 shares of the company’s stock valued at $996,741,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000,000 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi lifted its stake in shares of MP Materials by 1,320.8% during the 3rd quarter. Amundi now owns 954,317 shares of the company’s stock valued at $70,934,000 after buying an additional 887,148 shares in the last quarter. 52.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on MP. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $82.00 price objective on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Barclays decreased their price objective on MP Materials from $69.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on MP Materials from $75.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their target price on MP Materials from $70.00 to $61.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.21.

MP Materials Stock Performance

NYSE:MP opened at $47.45 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $53.77 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $57.86. MP Materials Corp. has a twelve month low of $37.81 and a twelve month high of $100.25. The stock has a market cap of $8.45 billion, a P/E ratio of -112.97 and a beta of 1.88. The company has a quick ratio of 6.58, a current ratio of 7.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by $0.04. The company had revenue of $90.65 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $74.82 million. MP Materials had a negative net margin of 28.00% and a negative return on equity of 2.27%. MP Materials’s revenue for the quarter was up 49.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned ($0.12) earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that MP Materials Corp. will post 0.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Ryan Corbett sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total value of $1,500,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 109,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,176,275. This represents a 15.50% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO James H. Litinsky sold 234,651 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.87, for a total transaction of $15,456,461.37. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 11,855,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $780,952,414.55. This trade represents a 1.94% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 905,167 shares of company stock valued at $60,161,837 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 8.20% of the company’s stock.

About MP Materials

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.