Principal Financial Group Inc. Decreases Stake in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) by 27.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 147,876 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 55,426 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.27% of Cabot worth $16,528,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Eastern Bank increased its position in shares of Cabot by 577.1% in the third quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 269,270 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $30,096,000 after acquiring an additional 229,500 shares in the last quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC raised its position in Cabot by 30.4% in the third quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 626,253 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $69,996,000 after purchasing an additional 146,179 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in shares of Cabot by 571.9% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 127,116 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $11,681,000 after purchasing an additional 108,197 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in shares of Cabot by 22.9% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 521,486 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $48,081,000 after buying an additional 97,101 shares during the period. Finally, Earnest Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cabot by 2.4% during the 2nd quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 3,363,398 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $309,063,000 after buying an additional 80,096 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.18% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cabot news, EVP Jeff Ji Zhu sold 14,566 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.25, for a total value of $1,649,599.50. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 69,449 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,865,099.25. This trade represents a 17.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Hobart Kalkstein sold 34,759 shares of Cabot stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.23, for a total value of $4,005,279.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 50,627 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,833,749.21. The trade was a 40.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 98,855 shares of company stock valued at $10,737,833 in the last quarter. Insiders own 3.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on CBT. UBS Group decreased their price target on Cabot from $103.00 to $98.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of 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. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price objective 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 equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $105.00.

Cabot Stock Performance

Cabot stock opened at $108.81 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $110.16 and a 200-day moving average of $102.13. The stock has a market cap of $5.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.20. Cabot Co. has a 52 week low of $70.63 and a 52 week high of $117.46.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.80 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.81 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $1 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.01 billion. Cabot had a return on equity of 26.60% and a net margin of 9.51%. Cabot’s revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.65 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Cabot Co. will post 7.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cabot Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be paid a dividend of $0.43 per share. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. Cabot’s payout ratio is currently 25.52%.

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.