Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Has $263,000 Holdings in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio raised its stake in shares of Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) by 170.2% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,351 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,481 shares during the quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio’s holdings in Cabot were worth $263,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC bought a new position in shares of Cabot in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in Cabot by 53.9% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 371 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Cabot by 197.9% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 417 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 277 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cabot by 33.4% in the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 475 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $48,000 after buying an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CWM LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cabot by 35.6% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 564 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $63,000 after buying an additional 148 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.18% of the company’s stock.

Cabot Price Performance

Shares of Cabot stock opened at $92.39 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 1.36. The company has a market cap of $5.03 billion, a PE ratio of 13.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.18. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $108.79 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $103.13. Cabot Co. has a fifty-two week low of $70.63 and a fifty-two week high of $117.46.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last released its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.80 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.81 by ($0.01). Cabot had a net margin of 9.51% and a return on equity of 26.60%. The company had revenue of $1 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.01 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.65 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Cabot Co. will post 7.67 EPS for the current year.

Cabot announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, December 3rd that permits the company to repurchase 10,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the specialty chemicals company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Cabot Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th were paid a $0.43 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 29th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.86%. Cabot’s payout ratio is 25.52%.

Insider Activity at Cabot

In related news, CAO Lisa M. Dumont sold 865 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $111.74, for a total value of $96,655.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,742 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,088,571.08. This represents a 8.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Jeff Ji Zhu sold 14,566 shares of Cabot stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.25, for a total value of $1,649,599.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 69,449 shares in the company, valued at $7,865,099.25. The trade was a 17.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 50,190 shares of company stock worth $5,751,534. 3.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on CBT shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Cabot from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $105.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday, November 11th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Cabot from $103.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cabot has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $105.00.

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.