Arizona State Retirement System Grows Position in MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP)

Arizona State Retirement System increased its position in shares of MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) by 30.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 39,729 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,385 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in MP Materials were worth $789,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in MP Materials by 25.3% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,380,831 shares of the company’s stock valued at $255,574,000 after buying an additional 2,697,925 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its position in MP Materials by 56.2% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,806,550 shares of the company’s stock valued at $275,608,000 after buying an additional 1,729,193 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in MP Materials by 29.1% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 6,398,647 shares of the company’s stock valued at $366,898,000 after buying an additional 1,441,580 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its position in MP Materials by 925.3% in the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,568,700 shares of the company’s stock valued at $89,949,000 after buying an additional 1,415,700 shares during the period. Finally, Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC purchased a new stake in MP Materials in the 1st quarter valued at about $23,876,000. 52.55% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MP has been the subject of several research reports. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their price objective on shares of MP Materials from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of MP Materials from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $26.00 to $15.50 in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of MP Materials from $22.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on shares of MP Materials from $36.00 to $28.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price target on shares of MP Materials from $17.00 to $15.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $25.19.

MP Materials Trading Up 2.7 %

NYSE MP opened at $16.79 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 9.54, a current ratio of 10.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. The firm has a market cap of $2.99 billion, a PE ratio of 129.13 and a beta of 2.41. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $15.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $16.45. MP Materials Corp. has a 52 week low of $12.68 and a 52 week high of $27.77.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 22nd. The company reported ($0.05) EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $41.21 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $47.40 million. MP Materials had a net margin of 9.59% and a return on equity of 3.86%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that MP Materials Corp. will post -0.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About MP Materials

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.