SpiderRock Advisors LLC Invests $220,000 in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

SpiderRock Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 2,500 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $220,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of CBT. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise lifted its holdings in shares of Cabot by 17.5% during the 1st quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 833 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $77,000 after purchasing an additional 124 shares in the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Cabot by 1.4% during the first quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 10,851 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $1,000,000 after purchasing an additional 145 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cabot by 143.1% in the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 333 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 196 shares in the last quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Cabot by 81.8% in the fourth quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 460 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 207 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates boosted its position in Cabot by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 42,103 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $3,516,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares during the last quarter. 93.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cabot from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 24th. Mizuho upped their price objective on Cabot from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $88.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on Cabot from $100.00 to $103.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 7th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $91.80.

Cabot Stock Performance

NYSE:CBT traded down $1.78 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $88.03. 82,470 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 315,554. Cabot Co. has a fifty-two week low of $64.15 and a fifty-two week high of $103.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 2.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.20. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $97.72 and its 200 day simple moving average is $88.88.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last announced its earnings results on Monday, May 6th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.78 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.66 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.04 billion. Cabot had a net margin of 11.51% and a return on equity of 26.21%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Cabot Co. will post 6.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cabot Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 31st were issued a dividend of $0.43 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 31st. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.95%. This is a boost from Cabot’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cabot’s payout ratio is 21.77%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Karen A. Kalita sold 13,764 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.73, for a total transaction of $1,400,211.72. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 34,312 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,490,559.76. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 3.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.