LSV Asset Management Increases Stake in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

LSV Asset Management increased its stake in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) by 1.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 127,000 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,200 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management owned approximately 0.23% of Cabot worth $10,605,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Raymond James & Associates grew its holdings in Cabot by 5.0% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 41,878 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $2,901,000 after acquiring an additional 1,986 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its position in shares of Cabot by 18.8% during the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 11,476 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $795,000 after acquiring an additional 1,819 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Cabot by 17.5% in the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 175,336 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $12,146,000 after acquiring an additional 26,052 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC purchased a new stake in Cabot in the 3rd quarter valued at $248,000. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in Cabot by 1,416.4% during the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 51,814 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $3,589,000 after purchasing an additional 48,397 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.18% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cabot news, EVP Jeff Ji Zhu sold 55,233 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.91, for a total transaction of $4,413,669.03. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 97,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,767,331.91. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 3.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CBT has been the subject of several recent research reports. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Cabot from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. UBS Group upped their price target on Cabot from $100.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. StockNews.com cut shares of Cabot from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $88.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $93.67.

Cabot Stock Performance

NYSE CBT opened at $100.99 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $91.17 and a 200 day moving average price of $81.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 2.04 and a quick ratio of 1.30. The company has a market capitalization of $5.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.12, a PEG ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.27. Cabot Co. has a 1-year low of $63.73 and a 1-year high of $103.46.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. Cabot had a net margin of 11.24% and a return on equity of 25.52%. The business had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.33 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Cabot Co. will post 6.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cabot Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 14th. Investors of record on Friday, May 31st will be paid a $0.43 dividend. This is an increase from Cabot’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 31st. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.70%. Cabot’s payout ratio is presently 20.78%.

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.