Cabot (NYSE:CBT) Hits New 52-Week High at $95.24

Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $95.24 and last traded at $95.04, with a volume of 5091 shares. The stock had previously closed at $94.25.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on CBT shares. Mizuho started coverage on shares of Cabot in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. They set a “buy” rating and a $104.00 price objective for the company. UBS Group cut shares of Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $90.00 to $87.00 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Cabot from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cabot presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $87.67.

Cabot Price Performance

The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $85.95 and its 200 day moving average price is $78.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.55, a PEG ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a quick ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 2.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last issued its earnings results on Monday, February 5th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $958.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $927.28 million. Cabot had a net margin of 11.24% and a return on equity of 25.52%. Equities research analysts expect that Cabot Co. will post 6.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cabot Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 22nd. Cabot’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.78%.

Insider Activity at Cabot

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cabot

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Cabot by 11.0% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 6,931,530 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $474,186,000 after purchasing an additional 686,769 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Cabot by 0.4% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,361,129 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $440,635,000 after buying an additional 24,961 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Cabot by 0.4% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,908,495 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $340,011,000 after buying an additional 20,589 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC boosted its stake in Cabot by 2.1% during the third quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 3,167,091 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $219,384,000 after buying an additional 66,422 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its stake in Cabot by 3.1% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,915,557 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $146,808,000 after buying an additional 56,765 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.18% of the company’s stock.

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.