Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) Short Interest Update

Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 3,470,000 shares, a growth of 26.6% from the February 13th total of 2,740,000 shares. Approximately 6.5% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 425,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 8.2 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Cabot by 22.0% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 650 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $73,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in Cabot by 10.7% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,348 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $123,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares during the period. Personal CFO Solutions LLC lifted its position in Cabot by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Personal CFO Solutions LLC now owns 4,285 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $391,000 after purchasing an additional 137 shares during the period. Moran Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Cabot by 0.3% in the third quarter. Moran Wealth Management LLC now owns 62,116 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $6,943,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares during the period. Finally, Isthmus Partners LLC lifted its position in Cabot by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. Isthmus Partners LLC now owns 4,072 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $372,000 after purchasing an additional 187 shares during the period. 93.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. Mizuho lowered their price target on Cabot from $122.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Cabot from $105.00 to $85.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $97.00.

Cabot Stock Up 0.4 %

CBT opened at $84.41 on Wednesday. Cabot has a 1-year low of $79.57 and a 1-year high of $117.46. The company has a current ratio of 2.00, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.21, a P/E/G ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 1.21. The business has a 50 day moving average of $86.64 and a 200-day moving average of $99.14.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 3rd. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.74 by $0.02. Cabot had a return on equity of 26.79% and a net margin of 10.60%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cabot will post 7.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Cabot Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th were given a $0.43 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.04%. Cabot’s dividend payout ratio is 22.84%.

Cabot declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, December 3rd that permits the company to repurchase 10,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization permits the specialty chemicals company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.