Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) Stock Holdings Lowered by Eastern Bank

Eastern Bank lessened its stake in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) by 2.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 262,270 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 7,000 shares during the quarter. Eastern Bank’s holdings in Cabot were worth $23,948,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CBT. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its position in shares of Cabot by 11.2% during the 2nd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 5,205 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $478,000 after purchasing an additional 523 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of Cabot during the 2nd quarter valued at about $213,000. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in Cabot by 7.3% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 976,709 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $89,750,000 after buying an additional 66,171 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale purchased a new stake in Cabot during the second quarter valued at about $412,000. Finally, Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Cabot by 24.0% during the second quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 42,240 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $3,881,000 after buying an additional 8,175 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.18% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on CBT. Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of Cabot from $122.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. 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 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. According to MarketBeat.com, Cabot presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $102.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Lisa M. Dumont sold 865 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $111.74, for a total transaction of $96,655.10. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,742 shares in the company, valued at $1,088,571.08. This represents a 8.15 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Jeff Ji Zhu sold 14,566 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was 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 owns 69,449 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,865,099.25. This trade represents a 17.34 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 50,190 shares of company stock valued at $5,751,534 over the last ninety days. 3.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Cabot Stock Performance

CBT stock traded up $2.08 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $88.79. 146,174 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 278,329. Cabot Co. has a twelve month low of $70.63 and a twelve month 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 business has a 50 day simple moving average of $102.39 and a 200-day simple moving average of $102.43. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.21.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.81 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $1 billion during 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%. The company’s revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.65 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Cabot Co. will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Cabot Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a $0.43 dividend. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.94%. Cabot’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 25.52%.

Cabot announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Tuesday, December 3rd that permits the company to buyback 10,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization permits the specialty chemicals company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is 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.