R Squared Ltd Makes New $26,000 Investment in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

R Squared Ltd bought a new position in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 290 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of CBT. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Cabot by 28.7% during the fourth quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,573 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $235,000 after purchasing an additional 573 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Cabot by 14.5% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 16,351 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,493,000 after purchasing an additional 2,069 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV boosted its position in Cabot by 43.1% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,046 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $187,000 after purchasing an additional 616 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in Cabot by 8.3% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 5,120 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $468,000 after purchasing an additional 391 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. boosted its position in Cabot by 8.2% during the fourth quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. now owns 5,872 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $536,000 after purchasing an additional 446 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.18% of the company’s stock.

Cabot Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CBT opened at $88.30 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 2.08. The company has a market cap of $4.79 billion, a PE ratio of 13.10, a P/E/G ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 1.19. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $94.83 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $101.99. Cabot Co. has a fifty-two week low of $70.63 and a fifty-two week high of $117.46.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 3rd. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.74 by $0.02. Cabot had a return on equity of 26.60% and a net margin of 9.51%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Cabot Co. will post 7.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cabot Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a $0.43 dividend. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.95%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. Cabot’s payout ratio is 25.52%.

Cabot declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, December 3rd that authorizes the company to buyback 10,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the specialty chemicals company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Mizuho dropped their price objective on Cabot from $122.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Cabot from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $105.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Monday, November 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Cabot currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $102.00.

Insider Transactions at Cabot

In other news, CAO Lisa M. Dumont sold 865 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was 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 directly owns 9,742 shares in the company, valued at $1,088,571.08. This trade represents a 8.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Hobart Kalkstein sold 34,759 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.23, for a total value of $4,005,279.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 50,627 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,833,749.21. The trade was a 40.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 50,190 shares of company stock worth $5,751,534 over the last three months. 3.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.