Cabot (NYSE:CBT) Cut to “Hold” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Cabot (NYSE:CBT) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Monday morning.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Cabot from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $105.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Monday, November 11th. Mizuho cut their price objective on Cabot from $122.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $102.00.

Cabot Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CBT opened at $85.51 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.36, a P/E/G ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a quick ratio of 1.36, a current ratio of 2.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $92.03 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $101.51. Cabot has a twelve month low of $78.61 and a twelve month high of $117.46.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last announced its earnings results on Monday, February 3rd. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.76 earnings per share 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 analysts anticipate that Cabot will post 7.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cabot Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.43 per share. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.01%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. Cabot’s dividend payout ratio is presently 22.84%.

Cabot announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, December 3rd that authorizes the company to buyback 10,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the specialty chemicals company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cabot

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC purchased a new stake in Cabot during the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. R Squared Ltd purchased a new stake in Cabot during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in Cabot by 53.9% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 371 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $41,000 after acquiring an additional 130 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Cabot by 197.9% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 417 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $47,000 after acquiring an additional 277 shares during the period. Finally, CWM LLC boosted its holdings in Cabot by 35.6% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 564 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $63,000 after acquiring an additional 148 shares during the period. 93.18% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.