Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) Position Decreased by Avantax Advisory Services Inc.

Avantax Advisory Services Inc. reduced its holdings in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) by 28.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 20,825 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 8,187 shares during the period. Avantax Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Cabot were worth $1,902,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in CBT. Copeland Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cabot by 21.6% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Lightrock Netherlands B.V. acquired a new stake in shares of Cabot during the fourth quarter worth $6,228,000. Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cabot by 103.9% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 113,614 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $12,699,000 after purchasing an additional 57,907 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Cabot in the 4th quarter valued at $5,057,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Cabot by 13.2% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 355,334 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $39,716,000 after purchasing an additional 41,554 shares in the last quarter. 93.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CBT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased 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. StockNews.com lowered shares of Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Mizuho cut their target price on shares of Cabot from $122.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cabot has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $97.00.

Cabot Stock Performance

CBT stock opened at $84.05 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $86.73 and a 200 day simple moving average of $99.29. Cabot Co. has a 52 week low of $79.57 and a 52 week high of $117.46. The stock has a market cap of $4.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.16, a P/E/G 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.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last issued its earnings results on Monday, February 3rd. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.74 by $0.02. Cabot had a net margin of 10.60% and a return on equity of 26.79%. Research analysts anticipate that Cabot Co. will post 7.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cabot announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, December 3rd that permits the company to repurchase 10,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization permits the specialty chemicals company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Cabot Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th were given a $0.43 dividend. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.05%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. Cabot’s payout ratio is currently 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.