Rhumbline Advisers Increases Stake in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

Rhumbline Advisers grew its position in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) by 0.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 178,431 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after buying an additional 649 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers’ holdings in Cabot were worth $16,293,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Cabot by 1.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,283,686 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $143,504,000 after acquiring an additional 22,719 shares in the last quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Cabot by 21.6% during the 4th quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 761,372 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $69,521,000 after purchasing an additional 135,119 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Cabot by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 707,433 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $79,070,000 after purchasing an additional 19,215 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of Cabot by 13.2% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 355,334 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $39,716,000 after purchasing an additional 41,554 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund lifted its holdings in shares of Cabot by 16.1% during the third quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 259,378 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $28,991,000 after purchasing an additional 36,036 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CBT has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Mizuho reduced their price objective on Cabot from $122.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Cabot from $105.00 to $85.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Cabot from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cabot presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $97.00.

Cabot Stock Down 1.1 %

Cabot stock opened at $84.56 on Friday. Cabot Co. has a one year low of $81.24 and a one year high of $117.46. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $89.47 and a 200 day moving average of $101.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 2.00. The stock has a market cap of $4.58 billion, a PE ratio of 11.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 1.19.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 3rd. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.76 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.74 by $0.02. Cabot had a net margin of 10.60% and a return on equity of 26.79%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Cabot Co. will post 7.57 EPS for the current year.

Cabot announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, December 3rd that authorizes the company to repurchase 10,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the specialty chemicals company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Cabot Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.43 per share. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. Cabot’s dividend payout ratio is presently 22.84%.

Cabot 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.