HighTower Advisors LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

HighTower Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) by 107.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 21,040 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,888 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Cabot were worth $2,346,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. CWM LLC increased its holdings in Cabot by 60.6% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 416 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 157 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its holdings in Cabot by 338.2% in the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 11,683 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $1,074,000 after purchasing an additional 9,017 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC lifted its position in Cabot by 5.2% during the second quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 6,233 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $573,000 after purchasing an additional 309 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. grew its holdings in Cabot by 17.5% during the second quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 8,882 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $816,000 after purchasing an additional 1,325 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in 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 worth $11,681,000 after buying an additional 108,197 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.18% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Hobart Kalkstein sold 34,759 shares of Cabot stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.23, for a total value of $4,005,279.57. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 50,627 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,833,749.21. The trade was a 40.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Lisa M. Dumont sold 865 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $111.74, for a total value of $96,655.10. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,742 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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. Insiders have sold a total of 50,190 shares of company stock worth $5,751,534 in the last 90 days. 3.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Cabot Stock Performance

NYSE CBT opened at $103.38 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.36, a current ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. Cabot Co. has a twelve month low of $70.63 and a twelve month high of $117.46. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $110.25 and a 200-day moving average price of $103.29. The firm has a market cap of $5.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.18.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last posted its quarterly 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). The business had revenue of $1 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.01 billion. Cabot had a return on equity of 26.60% and a net margin of 9.51%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.65 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Cabot Co. will post 7.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cabot announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Tuesday, December 3rd that allows the company to buyback 10,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the specialty chemicals company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Cabot Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th were issued a $0.43 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 29th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.66%. Cabot’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.52%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on CBT shares. Mizuho lifted their price objective on Cabot from $103.00 to $122.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Cabot from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $105.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Monday, November 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $105.00.

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.