Cabot (NYSE:CBT) Reaches 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 traded. The stock had previously closed at $94.25.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Cabot Stock Down 1.7 %

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

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 5th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.49 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $958.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $927.28 million. Cabot had a net margin of 11.24% and a return on equity of 25.52%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Cabot Co. will post 6.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cabot Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Cabot

In other Cabot 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 97,201 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,767,331.91. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 3.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

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

About Cabot

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.