Smith Group Asset Management LLC Makes New $432,000 Investment in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

Smith Group Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 4,681 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $432,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CBT. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Cabot by 13.5% during the 3rd quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 8,767 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $607,000 after purchasing an additional 1,044 shares during the period. Trexquant Investment LP bought a new stake in Cabot during the 3rd quarter valued at $643,000. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd boosted its position in Cabot by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 34,099 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $2,362,000 after acquiring an additional 723 shares in the last quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Cabot by 603.7% during the 3rd quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 23,460 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,625,000 after acquiring an additional 20,126 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new stake in Cabot during the 3rd quarter valued at $215,000. 93.18% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. StockNews.com cut Cabot from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 24th. UBS Group increased their target price on Cabot from $100.00 to $103.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their target price for the company from $88.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Mizuho raised their price objective on Cabot from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 7th. Three research 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 has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $91.80.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cabot news, SVP Karen A. Kalita sold 13,764 shares of Cabot stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.73, for a total transaction of $1,400,211.72. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 34,312 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,490,559.76. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 3.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Cabot Stock Down 1.6 %

Shares of Cabot stock traded down $1.44 during trading on Friday, reaching $88.37. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 377,565 shares, compared to its average volume of 355,947. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 2.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The company has a market cap of $4.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.19, a P/E/G ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.20. Cabot Co. has a 1-year low of $64.15 and a 1-year high of $103.49. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $97.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $88.92.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 6th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.78 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.66 by $0.12. Cabot had a return on equity of 26.21% and a net margin of 11.51%. The company had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.04 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.33 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Cabot Co. will post 6.78 earnings per share for the current year.

Cabot Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 31st were given a dividend of $0.43 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 31st. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.95%. This is a boost from Cabot’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cabot’s payout ratio is currently 21.77%.

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.