MML Investors Services LLC Increases Stock Position in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

MML Investors Services LLC increased its position in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,358 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after buying an additional 389 shares during the quarter. MML Investors Services LLC’s holdings in Cabot were worth $711,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cabot in the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its position in Cabot by 53.9% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 371 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Cabot by 197.9% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 417 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 277 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in Cabot by 33.4% in the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 475 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the period. Finally, CWM LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cabot by 35.6% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 564 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $63,000 after purchasing an additional 148 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.18% of the company’s stock.

Cabot Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of CBT opened at $92.39 on Friday. Cabot Co. has a one year low of $70.63 and a one year high of $117.46. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $108.79 and a 200 day moving average price of $103.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 2.08. The company has a market capitalization of $5.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.71, a P/E/G ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.18.

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 business had revenue of $1 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.01 billion. Cabot had a net margin of 9.51% and a return on equity of 26.60%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.65 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Cabot Co. will post 7.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cabot declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Tuesday, December 3rd that allows the company to repurchase 10,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the specialty chemicals company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Cabot Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th were given a $0.43 dividend. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.86%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 29th. Cabot’s payout ratio is currently 25.52%.

Insider Activity

In other Cabot news, CAO Lisa M. Dumont sold 865 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $111.74, for a total transaction of $96,655.10. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,742 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,088,571.08. This represents a 8.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Hobart Kalkstein sold 34,759 shares of Cabot stock in a transaction dated 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 trade represents a 40.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 50,190 shares of company stock worth $5,751,534. 3.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on CBT shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Cabot from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $105.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Cabot from $103.00 to $122.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $105.00.

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.