GAMMA Investing LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) by 10.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,348 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after buying an additional 130 shares during the quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC’s holdings in Cabot were worth $123,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Earnest Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Cabot by 2.4% in the second quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 3,363,398 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $309,063,000 after purchasing an additional 80,096 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Cabot by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,348,972 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $123,965,000 after buying an additional 4,437 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cabot by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,283,686 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $143,504,000 after buying an additional 22,719 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Cabot by 7.3% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 976,709 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $89,750,000 after acquiring an additional 66,171 shares during the period. Finally, Sei Investments Co. increased its position in Cabot by 5.9% during the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 913,259 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $83,919,000 after acquiring an additional 51,178 shares during the last quarter. 93.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CBT has been the topic of several recent research reports. Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of Cabot from $122.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Cabot from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $105.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, November 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cabot currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $102.00.

Cabot Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CBT opened at $87.59 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $102.83 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $102.39. Cabot Co. has a 52 week low of $70.63 and a 52 week high of $117.46. The company has a quick ratio of 1.36, a current ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.00, a PEG ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.21.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last released its quarterly earnings results 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). Cabot had a net margin of 9.51% and a return on equity of 26.60%. The company had revenue of $1 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.01 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.65 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Cabot Co. will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cabot Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th were paid a $0.43 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 29th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.96%. Cabot’s payout ratio is 25.52%.

Cabot announced that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, December 3rd that allows the company to repurchase 10,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization allows the specialty chemicals company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Cabot

In related news, EVP Jeff Ji Zhu sold 14,566 shares of Cabot stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.25, for a total transaction of $1,649,599.50. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly 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 filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Lisa M. Dumont sold 865 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $111.74, for a total value of $96,655.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,742 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,088,571.08. The trade was a 8.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 50,190 shares of company stock worth $5,751,534. 3.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Cabot 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.