Empowered Funds LLC Purchases Shares of 14,594 MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP)

Empowered Funds LLC purchased a new stake in MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 14,594 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $228,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its holdings in shares of MP Materials by 5.0% in the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 11,734 shares of the company’s stock valued at $207,000 after acquiring an additional 557 shares during the period. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of MP Materials by 0.5% in the third quarter. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. now owns 190,098 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,355,000 after acquiring an additional 910 shares during the period. Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of MP Materials by 0.4% in the third quarter. Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. now owns 255,495 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,509,000 after acquiring an additional 1,135 shares during the period. KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in shares of MP Materials by 35.7% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 4,733 shares of the company’s stock valued at $84,000 after acquiring an additional 1,246 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MP Materials by 69.3% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,775 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,000 after acquiring an additional 1,545 shares during the period. 52.55% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on MP. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price objective on MP Materials from $23.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on MP Materials from $19.50 to $22.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.45.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Ryan Corbett sold 35,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.50, for a total value of $752,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 260,021 shares in the company, valued at $5,590,451.50. This trade represents a 11.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO James H. Litinsky sold 300,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.22, for a total value of $6,066,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 18,043,076 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $364,830,996.72. This represents a 1.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 955,890 shares of company stock worth $20,944,628. 12.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

MP Materials Trading Up 4.6 %

NYSE:MP opened at $24.25 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $20.45 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $17.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -44.90 and a beta of 2.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 6.13 and a current ratio of 6.93. MP Materials Corp. has a 1 year low of $10.02 and a 1 year high of $26.00.

MP Materials (NYSE:MP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported ($0.14) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.09) by ($0.05). The business had revenue of $60.99 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $50.71 million. MP Materials had a negative return on equity of 6.78% and a negative net margin of 32.24%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that MP Materials Corp. will post -0.54 earnings per share 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.