Foundations Investment Advisors LLC Buys 573 Shares of Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

Foundations Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) by 28.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 2,573 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after buying an additional 573 shares during the quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Cabot were worth $235,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cabot by 14.5% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 16,351 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,493,000 after purchasing an additional 2,069 shares during the period. KBC Group NV raised its holdings in Cabot by 43.1% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,046 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $187,000 after buying an additional 616 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in Cabot by 8.3% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 5,120 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $468,000 after acquiring an additional 391 shares during the last quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. increased its position in shares of Cabot by 8.2% in the fourth quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. now owns 5,872 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $536,000 after acquiring an additional 446 shares during the period. Finally, Paradiem LLC raised its stake in shares of Cabot by 17.7% during the fourth quarter. Paradiem LLC now owns 132,275 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $12,078,000 after acquiring an additional 19,903 shares during the last quarter. 93.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Cabot Price Performance

CBT stock opened at $86.39 on Friday. Cabot Co. has a 1 year low of $70.63 and a 1 year high of $117.46. The company has a market cap of $4.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.82, a PEG ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 1.21. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $95.85 and a 200 day moving average of $102.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 1.36.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 business had revenue of $1 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.01 billion. Cabot had a return on equity of 26.60% and a net margin of 9.51%. The firm’s revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.65 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Cabot Co. will post 7.67 EPS for the current year.

Cabot Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.43 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.99%. Cabot’s payout ratio is presently 25.52%.

Cabot declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Tuesday, December 3rd that allows the company to repurchase 10,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization allows the specialty chemicals company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on CBT shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Cabot from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $105.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Mizuho reduced their target price on Cabot from $122.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. One 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 data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $102.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cabot

In other Cabot news, EVP Jeff Ji Zhu sold 14,566 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Hobart Kalkstein sold 34,759 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The stock was 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 $5,833,749.21. This represents a 40.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 50,190 shares of company stock worth $5,751,534. 3.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.