Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 7,610 Shares of Minerals Technologies Inc. (NYSE:MTX)

Principal Financial Group Inc. cut its position in shares of Minerals Technologies Inc. (NYSE:MTX – Get Rating) by 3.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 198,361 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 7,610 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Minerals Technologies were worth $12,044,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MTX. BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in shares of Minerals Technologies by 40.1% during the third quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 5,188,420 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $256,360,000 after purchasing an additional 1,483,760 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Minerals Technologies by 10.5% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,585,400 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $177,155,000 after acquiring an additional 341,092 shares in the last quarter. Eaton Vance Management boosted its holdings in Minerals Technologies by 21.2% in the first quarter. Eaton Vance Management now owns 994,955 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $65,816,000 after acquiring an additional 174,127 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC boosted its holdings in Minerals Technologies by 324.6% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 189,173 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $11,604,000 after acquiring an additional 144,616 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Minerals Technologies by 13.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,181,445 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $58,375,000 after acquiring an additional 137,105 shares in the last quarter. 96.57% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MTX has been the topic of several analyst reports. Sidoti downgraded Minerals Technologies from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $70.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Friday, February 3rd. StockNews.com started coverage on Minerals Technologies in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $70.00.

Minerals Technologies Stock Down 1.5 %

MTX stock opened at $57.65 on Friday. Minerals Technologies Inc. has a 1-year low of $49.38 and a 1-year high of $73.57. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $58.89 and a 200-day moving average price of $60.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 2.17 and a quick ratio of 1.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.33 and a beta of 1.30.

Minerals Technologies (NYSE:MTX – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 27th. The basic materials company reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.05 by $0.09. Minerals Technologies had a return on equity of 9.53% and a net margin of 5.36%. The firm had revenue of $546.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $527.73 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.36 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Minerals Technologies Inc. will post 5.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Minerals Technologies Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, June 1st will be given a dividend of $0.05 per share. This represents a $0.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 31st. Minerals Technologies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.67%.

Insider Activity at Minerals Technologies

In other news, Director Rocky Motwani acquired 822 shares of Minerals Technologies stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 6th. The stock was bought at an average price of $60.82 per share, for a total transaction of $49,994.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 822 shares in the company, valued at $49,994.04. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 3.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Minerals Technologies

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Minerals Technologies, Inc is a resource and technology-based company. It develops, produces, and markets a range of mineral, mineral-based, and synthetic mineral products. It operates through the following four segments: Performance Materials, Specialty Minerals, Refractories and Energy Services. The Performance Materials segment supplies bentonite and bentonite-related products, chromite and leonardite.