Mirador Capital Partners LP Purchases 1,617 Shares of MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP)

Mirador Capital Partners LP lifted its position in MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 22,851 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,617 shares during the period. Mirador Capital Partners LP’s holdings in MP Materials were worth $403,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in MP Materials by 9.5% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,454,589 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,874,000 after purchasing an additional 126,611 shares during the period. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of MP Materials by 13.7% in the 4th quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 49,267 shares of the company’s stock worth $978,000 after purchasing an additional 5,929 shares during the period. Aurora Investment Counsel grew its position in MP Materials by 13.0% during the fourth quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel now owns 56,580 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,123,000 after buying an additional 6,498 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in MP Materials by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,635,712 shares of the company’s stock worth $270,669,000 after acquiring an additional 254,881 shares during the period. Finally, Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of MP Materials during the 4th quarter worth $216,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 52.55% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on MP. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on MP Materials from $13.50 to $16.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Canaccord Genuity Group decreased their target price on shares of MP Materials from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of MP Materials from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $30.00 price objective on shares of MP Materials in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, DA Davidson lifted their target price on shares of MP Materials from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $20.85.

MP Materials Trading Up 2.5 %

MP stock opened at $17.38 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.87 billion, a PE ratio of -115.87 and a beta of 2.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 6.17 and a current ratio of 6.90. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $13.58 and a 200 day moving average price of $14.66. MP Materials Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $10.02 and a fifty-two week high of $20.85.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported ($0.17) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.09) by ($0.08). MP Materials had a negative return on equity of 4.28% and a negative net margin of 21.94%. The firm had revenue of $31.26 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.03 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.07 earnings per share. MP Materials’s quarterly revenue was down 51.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that MP Materials Corp. will post -0.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MP Materials announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Tuesday, September 3rd that permits the company to repurchase $300.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to buy up to 13.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Michael Stuart Rosenthal purchased 30,000 shares of MP Materials stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $10.84 per share, for a total transaction of $325,200.00. Following the acquisition, the chief operating officer now directly owns 1,402,975 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,208,249. The trade was a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 12.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.