Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) Shares Sold by Commonwealth Equity Services LLC

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC reduced its stake in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) by 9.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 4,606 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 461 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in Cabot were worth $421,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in CBT. Copeland Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Cabot by 21.6% in the fourth quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 761,372 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $69,521,000 after buying an additional 135,119 shares in the last quarter. Lightrock Netherlands B.V. acquired a new stake in shares of Cabot during the fourth quarter worth about $6,228,000. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in shares of Cabot by 103.9% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 113,614 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $12,699,000 after purchasing an additional 57,907 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Cabot in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $5,057,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Cabot by 13.2% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 355,334 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $39,716,000 after buying an additional 41,554 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.18% of the company’s stock.

Cabot Stock Performance

Shares of CBT stock opened at $78.39 on Monday. Cabot Co. has a 12 month low of $75.51 and a 12 month high of $117.46. The company has a current ratio of 2.00, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The company has a market cap of $4.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.41, a PEG ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 1.04. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $84.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $97.31.

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

Cabot Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th were issued a $0.43 dividend. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. Cabot’s payout ratio is 22.84%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on CBT shares. Mizuho decreased their price target on shares of Cabot from $122.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Cabot from $105.00 to $85.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, StockNews.com raised Cabot from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. 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 an average price target of $97.00.

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.