Pacer Advisors Inc. Acquires 2,069 Shares of Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) by 14.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 16,351 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after buying an additional 2,069 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Cabot were worth $1,493,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of CBT. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cabot in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings 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 buying an additional 130 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cabot by 197.9% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 417 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 277 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cabot by 35.6% in the 3rd 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. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Cabot by 22.0% in the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 650 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $73,000 after buying an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. 93.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Hobart Kalkstein sold 34,759 shares of Cabot stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.23, for a total value of $4,005,279.57. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 50,627 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,833,749.21. This trade represents a 40.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lisa M. Dumont sold 865 shares of Cabot stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,742 shares in the company, valued at $1,088,571.08. This represents a 8.15 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 50,190 shares of company stock valued at $5,751,534 in the last three months. 3.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Cabot Stock Performance

CBT opened at $86.39 on Friday. Cabot Co. has a 12-month low of $70.63 and a 12-month high of $117.46. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $4.68 billion, a PE ratio of 12.82, a P/E/G ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 1.21. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $95.85 and a two-hundred day moving average of $102.11.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analysts’ expectations of $1.01 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.65 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Cabot Co. will post 7.67 EPS for the current year.

Cabot announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, December 3rd that allows the company to buyback 10,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the specialty chemicals company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Cabot Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.43 per share. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.99%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. Cabot’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.52%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

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.