New York State Common Retirement Fund Lowers Holdings in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

New York State Common Retirement Fund trimmed its holdings in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) by 0.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 227,871 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 150 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Cabot were worth $19,027,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Arizona State Retirement System lifted its stake in Cabot by 1.0% during the third quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 15,986 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $1,107,000 after purchasing an additional 166 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates lifted its stake in Cabot by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 42,103 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $3,516,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its stake in Cabot by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 50,746 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $4,237,000 after purchasing an additional 274 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC lifted its stake in Cabot by 7.9% during the third quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 4,494 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $311,000 after purchasing an additional 328 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arlington Trust Co LLC acquired a new position in Cabot during the fourth quarter worth $34,000. 93.18% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CBT has been the topic of several analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $88.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Mizuho initiated coverage on Cabot in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $104.00 price objective on the stock. StockNews.com cut Cabot from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, UBS Group cut Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $90.00 to $87.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $90.17.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cabot

In other Cabot news, EVP Jeff Ji Zhu sold 55,233 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.91, for a total transaction of $4,413,669.03. Following the transaction, 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 filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 3.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Cabot Stock Up 0.6 %

Cabot stock opened at $93.59 on Monday. Cabot Co. has a 1-year low of $63.73 and a 1-year high of $98.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 2.04 and a quick ratio of 1.30. The stock has a market cap of $5.19 billion, a PE ratio of 12.15, a P/E/G ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.28. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $89.46 and its two-hundred day moving average is $80.68.

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

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.