Virtu Financial LLC Acquires Shares of 5,838 Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 5,838 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $533,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in CBT. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Cabot by 1.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,283,686 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $143,504,000 after purchasing an additional 22,719 shares in the last quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cabot by 21.6% in the 4th quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 761,372 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $69,521,000 after buying an additional 135,119 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cabot by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 710,608 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $64,886,000 after buying an additional 3,175 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Cabot by 13.2% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 355,334 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $39,716,000 after acquiring an additional 41,554 shares during the period. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers raised its position in Cabot by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 178,431 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $16,293,000 after acquiring an additional 649 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on CBT shares. Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of Cabot from $122.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Cabot from $105.00 to $85.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $97.00.

Cabot Price Performance

Cabot stock opened at $84.00 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 2.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $86.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $98.51. Cabot Co. has a 52 week low of $79.57 and a 52 week high of $117.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.55 billion, a PE ratio of 11.16, a P/E/G ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 1.21.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 10.60% and a return on equity of 26.79%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Cabot Co. will post 7.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Cabot Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th were issued a $0.43 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 28th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.05%. Cabot’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.84%.

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.