Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) Shares Sold by Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc.

Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. decreased its position in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) by 22.8% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 7,213 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 2,125 shares during the period. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc.’s holdings in Cabot were worth $659,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. R Squared Ltd acquired a new position in Cabot in the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Cabot by 22.0% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 650 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $73,000 after buying an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Cabot by 37.2% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 808 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $74,000 after buying an additional 219 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Cabot by 10.7% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,348 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $123,000 after buying an additional 130 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Manchester Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Cabot by 1,685.1% in the 4th quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 1,678 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $153,000 after acquiring an additional 1,584 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.18% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on CBT shares. StockNews.com cut Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of Cabot from $122.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Cabot from $105.00 to $85.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.00.

Cabot Price Performance

Cabot stock opened at $84.06 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $86.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is $98.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 2.00. Cabot Co. has a 1 year low of $79.57 and a 1 year high of $117.46. The company has a market capitalization of $4.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 1.21.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 3rd. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.76 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.74 by $0.02. Cabot had a return on equity of 26.79% and a net margin of 10.60%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Cabot Co. will post 7.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Cabot Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th were issued a $0.43 dividend. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.05%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. Cabot’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.84%.

Cabot announced that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Tuesday, December 3rd that allows the company to buyback 10,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the specialty chemicals company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.