Verition Fund Management LLC Buys 2,212 Shares of Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

Verition Fund Management LLC grew its stake in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) by 47.1% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 6,911 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,212 shares during the period. Verition Fund Management LLC’s holdings in Cabot were worth $772,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Earnest Partners LLC grew its holdings in Cabot by 2.4% during the second quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 3,363,398 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $309,063,000 after purchasing an additional 80,096 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Cabot by 0.3% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,348,972 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $123,965,000 after purchasing an additional 4,437 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Cabot by 7.3% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 976,709 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $89,750,000 after buying an additional 66,171 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. increased its position in shares of Cabot by 5.9% in the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 913,259 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $83,919,000 after buying an additional 51,178 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Cabot by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 707,433 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $79,070,000 after buying an additional 19,215 shares during the period. 93.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Cabot from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $105.00 price target for the company. in a report on Monday, November 11th. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Cabot from $103.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $105.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Lisa M. Dumont sold 865 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $111.74, for a total transaction of $96,655.10. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,742 shares in the company, valued at $1,088,571.08. This represents a 8.15 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Hobart Kalkstein sold 34,759 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.23, for a total transaction of $4,005,279.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 50,627 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,833,749.21. This represents a 40.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 50,190 shares of company stock valued at $5,751,534 in the last three months. 3.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Cabot Stock Performance

CBT opened at $106.59 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 1.36. The company has a market capitalization of $5.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.81, a P/E/G ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.18. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $110.70 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $103.23. Cabot Co. has a 1 year low of $70.63 and a 1 year high of $117.46.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last released its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.80 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.81 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $1 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.01 billion. Cabot had a net margin of 9.51% and a return on equity of 26.60%. The company’s revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.65 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Cabot Co. will post 7.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cabot Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be paid a $0.43 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 29th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.61%. Cabot’s payout ratio is currently 25.52%.

Cabot declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, December 3rd that permits the company to repurchase 10,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization permits the specialty chemicals company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Cabot Company Profile

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.