JPMorgan Chase & Co. Downgrades Cabot (NYSE:CBT) to Underweight

JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Cabot (NYSE:CBT) from a neutral rating to an underweight rating in a report issued on Monday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have $105.00 target price on the specialty chemicals company’s stock.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Cabot from $103.00 to $98.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Cabot from $103.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $105.00.

Cabot Stock Down 1.6 %

Cabot stock opened at $109.20 on Monday. Cabot has a fifty-two week low of $70.63 and a fifty-two week high of $117.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 2.08. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $109.97 and a 200 day moving average price of $102.03. The company has a market capitalization of $5.99 billion, a PE ratio of 16.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.20.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last posted its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.80 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.81 by ($0.01). Cabot had a net margin of 9.51% and a return on equity of 26.60%. The company had revenue of $1 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.01 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.65 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Cabot will post 7.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Cabot Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th will be paid a dividend of $0.43 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.58%. Cabot’s payout ratio is currently 25.52%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Hobart Kalkstein sold 5,457 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.58, for a total value of $548,865.06. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 61,688 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,204,579.04. The trade was a 8.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Lisa M. Dumont sold 865 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $111.74, for a total transaction of $96,655.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,742 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,088,571.08. The trade was a 8.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 98,855 shares of company stock worth $10,737,833. Corporate insiders own 3.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CBT. Eastern Bank increased its stake in shares of Cabot by 577.1% during the third quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 269,270 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $30,096,000 after acquiring an additional 229,500 shares during the period. Fiera Capital Corp acquired a new position in Cabot during the third quarter worth about $19,643,000. Copeland Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Cabot by 30.4% in the third quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 626,253 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $69,996,000 after purchasing an additional 146,179 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in shares of Cabot by 571.9% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 127,116 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $11,681,000 after purchasing an additional 108,197 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors grew its position in shares of Cabot by 22.9% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 521,486 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $48,081,000 after purchasing an additional 97,101 shares during the last quarter. 93.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Cabot

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.