Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. Buys 380 Shares of Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) by 0.9% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 43,864 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after buying an additional 380 shares during the quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Cabot were worth $4,005,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. R Squared Ltd bought a new stake in Cabot in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its holdings 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 worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 277 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Cabot by 22.0% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 650 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $73,000 after buying an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd boosted its stake in Cabot by 35.6% during the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 831 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $93,000 after buying an additional 218 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Cabot by 10.7% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,348 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $123,000 after buying an additional 130 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.18% of the company’s stock.

Cabot Trading Up 0.6 %

NYSE CBT opened at $85.99 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $88.42 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $100.68. Cabot Co. has a one year low of $83.53 and a one year high of $117.46. The company has a market capitalization of $4.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 2.00.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 3rd. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.74 by $0.02. Cabot had a return on equity of 26.79% and a net margin of 10.60%. Equities analysts forecast that Cabot Co. will post 7.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cabot Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.00%. Cabot’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.84%.

Cabot declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase 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 purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently issued reports on CBT shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Cabot from $105.00 to $85.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 21st. StockNews.com raised shares of Cabot from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of Cabot from $122.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $97.00.

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.