Cabot (NYSE:CBT) Stock Rating Lowered by StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Cabot (NYSE:CBT) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Monday morning.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. UBS Group upped their price objective on Cabot from $100.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 7th. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Cabot from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 7th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered shares of Cabot from a buy rating to a hold rating and raised their price target for the stock from $88.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $91.80.

Cabot Price Performance

Shares of CBT opened at $96.13 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $97.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of $88.33. Cabot has a 52-week low of $63.73 and a 52-week high of $103.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 2.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.31 billion, a PE ratio of 12.17, a P/E/G ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 1.26.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last announced its earnings results on Monday, May 6th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.66 by $0.12. Cabot had a return on equity of 26.21% and a net margin of 11.51%. The business had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.33 EPS. Cabot’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Cabot will post 6.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cabot Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 31st were paid a dividend of $0.43 per share. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.79%. This is an increase from Cabot’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 31st. Cabot’s dividend payout ratio is presently 21.77%.

Insider Activity at Cabot

In other Cabot news, SVP Karen A. Kalita sold 13,764 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.73, for a total transaction of $1,400,211.72. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 34,312 shares in the company, valued at $3,490,559.76. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 3.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cabot

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CBT. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cabot by 143.1% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 333 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 196 shares during the last quarter. Arlington Trust Co LLC acquired a new position in Cabot during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in Cabot by 81.8% in the 4th quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 460 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 207 shares during the last quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Cabot by 372.0% during the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 505 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 398 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cabot during the fourth quarter worth $44,000. 93.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Cabot

Cabot Corporation operates as a specialty chemicals and performance materials company. The company operates through two segments, Reinforcement Materials and Performance Chemicals. It offers reinforcing carbons that are used in tires as a rubber reinforcing agent and performance additive, as well as in industrial products, such as hoses, belts, extruded profiles, and molded goods; and engineered elastomer composites solutions.