Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) Short Interest Up 8.4% in July

Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,200,000 shares, a growth of 8.4% from the June 30th total of 2,030,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 325,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 6.8 days. Currently, 4.0% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Insider Transactions at Cabot

In other 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 value of $1,400,211.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 34,312 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,490,559.76. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 3.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cabot

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Raymond James & Associates increased its position in shares of Cabot by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 42,103 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $3,516,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Cabot by 10.1% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 14,666 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,225,000 after buying an additional 1,342 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in Cabot by 33.4% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,527 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $211,000 after buying an additional 632 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its stake in Cabot by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 24,179 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $2,019,000 after buying an additional 1,229 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Patten & Patten Inc. TN bought a new stake in Cabot during the 4th quarter valued at $215,000. 93.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CBT has been the topic of several research reports. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Cabot from $100.00 to $103.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 7th. Mizuho raised their price objective on Cabot from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $88.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Cabot from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 24th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $91.80.

Cabot Stock Down 0.0 %

CBT stock opened at $100.28 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $96.59 and its 200-day moving average is $90.76. Cabot has a twelve month low of $64.51 and a twelve month high of $103.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.54 billion, a PE ratio of 12.69, a P/E/G ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 2.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 6th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.66 by $0.12. Cabot had a net margin of 11.51% and a return on equity of 26.21%. The firm had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.04 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.33 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Cabot will post 6.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cabot Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 30th will be issued a $0.43 dividend. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.72%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 30th. Cabot’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.