Gamco Investors INC. ET AL Has $13.90 Million Stock Position in Minerals Technologies Inc. (NYSE:MTX)

Gamco Investors INC. ET AL lifted its holdings in shares of Minerals Technologies Inc. (NYSE:MTX) by 10.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 240,935 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 22,535 shares during the period. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL owned about 0.74% of Minerals Technologies worth $13,900,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MTX. Dark Forest Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Minerals Technologies during the 1st quarter worth $29,000. Quantbot Technologies LP increased its holdings in Minerals Technologies by 126.1% in the 2nd quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 997 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 556 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new position in Minerals Technologies in the 2nd quarter worth about $72,000. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC increased its holdings in Minerals Technologies by 17.0% in the 2nd quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,725 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $100,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC acquired a new position in Minerals Technologies in the 1st quarter worth about $137,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MTX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Sidoti raised Minerals Technologies from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, October 19th. CL King upgraded Minerals Technologies from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $72.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 31st. TheStreet lowered Minerals Technologies from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Monday, October 9th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Minerals Technologies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 3rd.

Minerals Technologies Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of Minerals Technologies stock opened at $62.48 on Tuesday. Minerals Technologies Inc. has a one year low of $48.61 and a one year high of $73.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 2.31 and a quick ratio of 1.60. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $54.72 and its 200 day moving average is $56.69. The firm has a market cap of $2.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.40 and a beta of 1.27.

Minerals Technologies (NYSE:MTX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 26th. The basic materials company reported $1.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.31 by $0.18. Minerals Technologies had a return on equity of 9.15% and a net margin of 2.99%. The company had revenue of $547.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $551.85 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.35 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Minerals Technologies Inc. will post 5.19 EPS for the current year.

Minerals Technologies Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 7th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 1st will be given a dividend of $0.10 per share. This is a positive change from Minerals Technologies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.05. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, October 31st. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.64%. Minerals Technologies’s dividend payout ratio is presently 20.10%.

Minerals Technologies Company Profile

Minerals Technologies Inc develops, produces, and markets various specialty mineral, mineral-based, and synthetic mineral products, and supporting systems and services. The company operates through three segments: Performance Materials, Specialty Minerals and Refractories. The Performance Materials segment supplies bentonite and bentonite-related products, as well as leonardite.