KBC Group NV Buys 644 Shares of Cabot Corporation (NYSE:CBT)

KBC Group NV raised its stake in Cabot Corporation (NYSE:CBT) by 31.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,690 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after acquiring an additional 644 shares during the period. KBC Group NV’s holdings in Cabot were worth $224,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of CBT. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Cabot by 8.5% in the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,323,347 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $120,835,000 after buying an additional 103,380 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. increased its holdings in shares of Cabot by 6.0% in the 4th quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 942,273 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $86,039,000 after buying an additional 53,090 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Cabot by 7.1% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 845,261 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $77,181,000 after buying an additional 55,905 shares during the last quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cabot by 5.8% in the 1st quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 805,504 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $66,970,000 after buying an additional 44,132 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Cabot by 12.4% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 794,477 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $72,544,000 after buying an additional 87,881 shares during the last quarter. 93.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on CBT shares. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Cabot from $93.00 to $83.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 7th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th.

Cabot Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CBT opened at $78.37 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.14, a PEG ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 0.85. Cabot Corporation has a 12 month low of $71.64 and a 12 month high of $117.46. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $75.62 and its 200 day moving average is $81.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.96, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.86 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $936.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. Cabot had a net margin of 11.08% and a return on equity of 26.76%. The firm’s revenue was down 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.78 EPS. Research analysts predict that Cabot Corporation will post 7.57 EPS for the current year.

Cabot Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 30th were given a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.30%. This is a boost from Cabot’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 30th. Cabot’s payout ratio is 23.29%.

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.