Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) Announces $0.43 Quarterly Dividend

Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 10th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of 0.43 per share by the specialty chemicals company on Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.98%.

Cabot has increased its dividend payment by an average of 6.0% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 13 consecutive years. Cabot has a payout ratio of 20.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Cabot to earn $8.42 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.72 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 20.4%.

Cabot Stock Performance

NYSE:CBT opened at $86.65 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $4.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.86, a PEG ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.21. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $102.83 and a 200 day simple moving average of $102.39. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. Cabot has a 1-year low of $70.63 and a 1-year high of $117.46.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.01 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.65 earnings per share. Cabot’s revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Cabot will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Hobart Kalkstein sold 34,759 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.23, for a total transaction of $4,005,279.57. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 50,627 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,833,749.21. This trade represents a 40.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Lisa M. Dumont sold 865 shares of the firm’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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,742 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,088,571.08. This represents a 8.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 50,190 shares of company stock worth $5,751,534. Corporate insiders own 3.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Mizuho reduced their price objective on Cabot from $122.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Cabot from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $105.00 price objective 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, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $102.00.

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.