Bank of New York Mellon Corp Trims Stock Holdings in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp cut its holdings in shares of Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) by 1.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 601,182 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 6,842 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp’s holdings in Cabot were worth $54,894,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Cabot by 1.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,283,686 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $143,504,000 after purchasing an additional 22,719 shares during the period. Copeland Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Cabot by 21.6% during the fourth quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 761,372 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $69,521,000 after buying an additional 135,119 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Cabot by 2.8% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 707,433 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $79,070,000 after buying an additional 19,215 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Cabot by 13.2% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 355,334 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $39,716,000 after buying an additional 41,554 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers grew its position in shares of Cabot by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 178,431 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $16,293,000 after buying an additional 649 shares in the last quarter. 93.18% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cabot Stock Performance

Shares of CBT opened at $81.20 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $88.21 and a 200 day moving average price of $100.60. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 2.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The company has a market capitalization of $4.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 1.19. Cabot Co. has a 52-week low of $79.57 and a 52-week high of $117.46.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last announced its quarterly 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 return on equity of 26.79% and a net margin of 10.60%. Research analysts predict that Cabot Co. will post 7.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cabot announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share 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. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Cabot Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a $0.43 dividend. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. Cabot’s dividend payout ratio is currently 22.84%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on CBT shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Cabot from $105.00 to $85.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 21st. StockNews.com raised Cabot from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Mizuho lowered their price objective on Cabot from $122.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $97.00.

Cabot 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.