Cabot Co. (CBT) To Go Ex-Dividend on May 31st

Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, May 6th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 31st will be given a dividend of 0.43 per share by the specialty chemicals company on Friday, June 14th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 31st. This is a positive change from Cabot’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40.

Cabot has raised its dividend payment by an average of 3.9% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 1 consecutive years. Cabot has a payout ratio of 21.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Cabot to earn $7.42 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 21.6%.

Cabot Stock Up 0.4 %

CBT traded up $0.41 on Wednesday, hitting $101.48. 68,155 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 305,579. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a current ratio of 2.04. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $91.17 and its 200-day moving average is $81.92. The company has a market cap of $5.63 billion, a PE ratio of 13.12, a PEG ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.27. Cabot has a 12 month low of $63.73 and a 12 month high of $103.46.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 6th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.66 by $0.12. Cabot had a return on equity of 25.52% and a net margin of 11.24%. The firm had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.04 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.33 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Cabot will post 6.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Jeff Ji Zhu sold 55,233 shares of Cabot stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.91, for a total value of $4,413,669.03. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 97,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,767,331.91. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 3.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on CBT shares. StockNews.com cut Cabot from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $88.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Cabot from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Cabot from $100.00 to $103.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Cabot currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $93.67.

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.