Cabot (NYSE:CBT) Stock Bumped Down to “Strong Sell” by Zacks Research

Zacks Research cut shares of Cabot (NYSE:CBT) from a hold rating to a strong sell rating in a research note released on Thursday,Zacks reports.

CBT has been the subject of several other reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Cabot from $70.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. Truist Financial dropped their target price on shares of Cabot from $100.00 to $95.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Cabot in a report on Friday, August 21st. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Cabot from $86.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Cabot has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $85.60.

Cabot Trading Down 2.5%

NYSE:CBT traded down $1.85 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $71.12. The stock had a trading volume of 285,481 shares, compared to its average volume of 380,192. Cabot has a one year low of $58.33 and a one year high of $94.53. The company has a market capitalization of $3.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.74, a PEG ratio of 8.91 and a beta of 0.83. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $76.87 and a 200 day moving average of $79.54. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last issued its earnings results on Monday, November 2nd. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.61 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.55 by $0.06. Cabot had a return on equity of 19.79% and a net margin of 5.69%. The business had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $927.29 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.70 EPS. Cabot’s revenue was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Cabot will post 6.55 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Cabot

In related news, CEO Sean Keohane sold 134,895 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.00, for a total transaction of $11,466,075.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 404,134 shares in the company, valued at $34,351,390. This represents a 25.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 3.08% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cabot

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CBT. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Cabot in the second quarter worth about $633,302,000. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in shares of Cabot in the 2nd quarter valued at about $150,772,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in shares of Cabot in the 2nd quarter valued at about $57,445,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cabot in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $16,809,000. Finally, State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Cabot by 6.8% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,165,434 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $196,665,000 after buying an additional 138,098 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.18% of the company’s stock.

About Cabot

Cabot Corporation (NYSE: CBT) is a global specialty chemicals and performance materials company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The company develops and manufactures materials used to improve the performance, durability, conductivity, color and purity of products across a range of industries.

Cabot’s products include carbon black used in tires, rubber goods, coatings, plastics and printing inks; specialty carbons and conductive materials for batteries and other applications; and specialty compounds and masterbatches.