Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Buys Shares of 40,500 MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new stake in MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 40,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $804,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its position in shares of MP Materials by 120.6% during the third quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 2,074 shares of the company’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 1,134 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of MP Materials by 2,335.3% during the fourth quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,070 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 1,985 shares during the period. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd boosted its position in shares of MP Materials by 103.6% during the third quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd now owns 3,645 shares of the company’s stock worth $70,000 after buying an additional 1,855 shares during the period. Mendota Financial Group LLC boosted its position in shares of MP Materials by 46.8% during the fourth quarter. Mendota Financial Group LLC now owns 3,786 shares of the company’s stock worth $75,000 after buying an additional 1,207 shares during the period. Finally, Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV boosted its position in shares of MP Materials by 34.9% during the fourth quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 4,742 shares of the company’s stock worth $94,000 after buying an additional 1,227 shares during the period. 52.55% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

MP Materials Price Performance

NYSE MP opened at $16.00 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 123.09, a P/E/G ratio of 3.48 and a beta of 2.41. MP Materials Corp. has a 1 year low of $12.68 and a 1 year high of $26.53. The business’s fifty day moving average is $15.25 and its two-hundred day moving average is $16.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 9.54 and a current ratio of 10.42.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The company reported ($0.05) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of ($0.05). The company had revenue of $41.21 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $47.40 million. MP Materials had a return on equity of 3.86% and a net margin of 9.59%. On average, research analysts forecast that MP Materials Corp. will post 0.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MP has been the subject of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded MP Materials from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $20.00 to $16.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their target price on MP Materials from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Morgan Stanley cut MP Materials from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $26.00 to $15.50 in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on MP Materials from $36.00 to $28.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their target price on MP Materials from $17.00 to $15.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, MP Materials has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $23.64.

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.