Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Decreases Stake in MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP)

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky lowered its stake in MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) by 21.2% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 37,162 shares of the company’s stock after selling 10,017 shares during the period. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in MP Materials were worth $656,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MP. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC grew its stake in shares of MP Materials by 32.7% in the third quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 1,245,796 shares of the company’s stock worth $21,988,000 after purchasing an additional 306,933 shares during the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC lifted its holdings in MP Materials by 806.0% in the 3rd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 42,944 shares of the company’s stock worth $758,000 after buying an additional 38,204 shares during the period. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in shares of MP Materials in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $2,300,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of MP Materials by 35.7% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 604,892 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,676,000 after buying an additional 159,200 shares during the period. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd bought a new position in shares of MP Materials during the second quarter valued at approximately $959,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 52.55% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other MP Materials news, CFO Ryan Corbett sold 15,195 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.30, for a total transaction of $278,068.50. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 295,021 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,398,884.30. This trade represents a 4.90 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO James H. Litinsky sold 234,667 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.68, for a total value of $4,852,913.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 17,608,409 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $364,141,898.12. This represents a 1.32 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 884,862 shares of company stock worth $17,484,482 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 12.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on MP. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of MP Materials from $20.00 to $25.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price target on shares of MP Materials from $23.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. DA Davidson raised their price objective on shares of MP Materials from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on MP Materials from $13.50 to $16.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on MP Materials from $16.00 to $18.50 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.10.

MP Materials Trading Down 8.9 %

MP Materials stock opened at $16.73 on Thursday. MP Materials Corp. has a 12 month low of $10.02 and a 12 month high of $24.01. The company has a market capitalization of $2.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -30.98 and a beta of 2.24. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $19.15 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $15.77. The company has a current ratio of 6.93, a quick ratio of 6.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88.

MP Materials announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, September 3rd that authorizes the company to buyback $300.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to reacquire up to 13.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

MP Materials Company 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.