Strs Ohio Acquires Shares of 28,141 MP Materials Corp. $MP

Key Points

• Strs Ohio has acquired a new position in MP Materials Corp., purchasing 28,141 shares valued at approximately $687,000 in Q1.
• Analysts have recently raised their price targets for MP Materials, with DA Davidson setting a new target of $82.00, while several analysts rated the stock as a "Buy."
• COO Michael Stuart Rosenthal sold 150,000 shares for over $10 million, reducing his ownership stake by 10.46%.

Strs Ohio bought a new position in MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 28,141 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $687,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of MP Materials by 7.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,662,567 shares of the company's stock valued at $333,503,000 after buying an additional 942,105 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of MP Materials by 25.3% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,655,102 shares of the company's stock valued at $64,811,000 after buying an additional 536,522 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its position in shares of MP Materials by 73.7% during the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 1,657,299 shares of the company's stock valued at $40,455,000 after buying an additional 703,042 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its position in shares of MP Materials by 429.3% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 1,550,124 shares of the company's stock valued at $37,839,000 after buying an additional 1,257,282 shares during the period. Finally, Driehaus Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of MP Materials during the first quarter valued at about $34,288,000. 52.55% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on MP. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on MP Materials from $52.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Benchmark restated a "buy" rating on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Friday, August 29th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded MP Materials from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $80.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Cowen restated a "buy" rating on shares of MP Materials in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $65.00 target price on MP Materials and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MP Materials has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $66.88.

Insider Activity

In other MP Materials news, COO Michael Stuart Rosenthal sold 150,000 shares of MP Materials stock in a transaction on Friday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.02, for a total transaction of $10,803,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 1,284,409 shares in the company, valued at approximately $92,503,136.18. The trade was a 10.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 9.50% of the company's stock.

MP Materials Trading Down 0.7%

NYSE MP traded down $0.49 on Monday, hitting $72.73. The company's stock had a trading volume of 7,898,371 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,436,973. MP Materials Corp. has a 52-week low of $13.81 and a 52-week high of $82.50. The company has a current ratio of 3.60, a quick ratio of 3.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $66.39 and its 200 day simple moving average is $40.40. The firm has a market cap of $12.88 billion, a P/E ratio of -115.49 and a beta of 2.32.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported ($0.13) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.16) by $0.03. MP Materials had a negative return on equity of 9.34% and a negative net margin of 41.87%.The firm had revenue of $57.39 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $44.84 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.17) EPS. The business's revenue was up 83.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that MP Materials Corp. will post -0.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MP Materials Profile

MP Materials Corp., together with its subsidiaries, produces rare earth materials. The company owns and operates the Mountain Pass Rare Earth mine and processing facility in North America. It holds the mineral rights to the Mountain Pass mine and surrounding areas, as well as intellectual property rights related to the processing and development of rare earth minerals.