Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) was the target of a large growth in short interest in October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,570,000 shares, a growth of 9.4% from the October 15th total of 2,350,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 363,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 7.1 days. Approximately 4.8% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Lisa M. Dumont sold 865 shares of Cabot stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $111.74, for a total value of $96,655.10. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,742 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,088,571.08. The trade was a 8.15 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Jeff Ji Zhu sold 1,201 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.19, for a total value of $127,534.19. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 96,000 shares in the company, valued at $10,194,240. This trade represents a 1.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 93,398 shares of company stock valued at $10,188,968 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 3.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cabot

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Eastern Bank grew its stake in Cabot by 577.1% during the 3rd quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 269,270 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $30,096,000 after buying an additional 229,500 shares during the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp bought a new position in Cabot during the 3rd quarter worth $19,643,000. Copeland Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Cabot by 30.4% during the 3rd quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 626,253 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $69,996,000 after buying an additional 146,179 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in Cabot by 571.9% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 127,116 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $11,681,000 after buying an additional 108,197 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in Cabot by 22.9% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 521,486 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $48,081,000 after buying an additional 97,101 shares during the last quarter. 93.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Cabot Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CBT opened at $108.75 on Tuesday. Cabot has a twelve month low of $70.63 and a twelve month high of $117.46. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The company has a market capitalization of $5.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 1.20. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $110.33 and a 200-day simple moving average of $102.38.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.80 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.81 by ($0.01). Cabot had a net margin of 9.51% and a return on equity of 26.60%. The firm had revenue of $1 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.01 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.65 earnings per share. Cabot’s revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Cabot will post 7.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Cabot Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be issued a $0.43 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 29th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.58%. Cabot’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.52%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on CBT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Cabot from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $105.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Mizuho boosted their price target on Cabot from $103.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price target on Cabot from $103.00 to $98.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $105.00.

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.