Natixis Advisors LLC Increases Position in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) by 7.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 124,079 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after buying an additional 8,068 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in Cabot were worth $11,330,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 117 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cabot by 10.7% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,348 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $123,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares during the last quarter. Personal CFO Solutions LLC increased its stake in Cabot by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Personal CFO Solutions LLC now owns 4,285 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $391,000 after buying an additional 137 shares during the period. Moran Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Cabot by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Moran Wealth Management LLC now owns 62,116 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $6,943,000 after buying an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Isthmus Partners LLC boosted its position in Cabot by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Isthmus Partners LLC now owns 4,072 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $372,000 after buying an additional 187 shares during the period. 93.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on CBT shares. Mizuho decreased their price target 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. StockNews.com lowered Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Cabot from $105.00 to $85.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.00.

Cabot Stock Performance

CBT stock opened at $84.16 on Thursday. Cabot Co. has a one year low of $79.57 and a one year high of $117.46. The firm has a market cap of $4.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.18, a PEG ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 2.00. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $86.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $99.04.

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

Cabot Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th were paid a dividend of $0.43 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.04%. Cabot’s payout ratio is 22.84%.

Cabot announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Tuesday, December 3rd that authorizes the company to repurchase 10,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the specialty chemicals company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.