Ritholtz Wealth Management Purchases 3,455 Shares of Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

Ritholtz Wealth Management raised its position in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) by 165.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 5,543 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after buying an additional 3,455 shares during the quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings in Cabot were worth $506,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in CBT. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC bought a new position in Cabot in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in shares of Cabot by 53.9% in the 3rd 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 holdings in shares of Cabot by 197.9% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 417 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $47,000 after buying an additional 277 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Cabot by 33.4% during the 2nd 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 stake in Cabot by 35.6% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 564 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $63,000 after buying an additional 148 shares in the last quarter. 93.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Cabot Stock Performance

Shares of CBT stock opened at $91.37 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.56, a PEG ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $99.56 and its 200-day moving average price is $102.42. Cabot Co. has a 12 month low of $70.63 and a 12 month high of $117.46.

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

Cabot declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, December 3rd that allows the company to repurchase 10,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the specialty chemicals company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Cabot Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th will be issued a $0.43 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.88%. Cabot’s payout ratio is 25.52%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on CBT. Mizuho lowered their target price on Cabot from $122.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Cabot from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $105.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, November 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $102.00.

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.