Foster & Motley Inc. Has $1.28 Million Position in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

Foster & Motley Inc. reduced its stake in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) by 2.3% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 13,991 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 324 shares during the quarter. Foster & Motley Inc.’s holdings in Cabot were worth $1,278,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. R Squared Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Cabot in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cabot by 28.7% in the 4th quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,573 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $235,000 after purchasing an additional 573 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cabot by 14.5% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 16,351 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,493,000 after purchasing an additional 2,069 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV boosted its stake in shares of Cabot by 43.1% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,046 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $187,000 after purchasing an additional 616 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in Cabot by 8.3% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 5,120 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $468,000 after buying an additional 391 shares during the last quarter. 93.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Cabot

In other news, CAO Lisa M. Dumont sold 865 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owns 9,742 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,088,571.08. This trade represents a 8.15 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Hobart Kalkstein sold 34,759 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.23, for a total transaction 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. This trade represents a 40.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 50,190 shares of company stock valued at $5,751,534 in the last quarter. 3.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Cabot Stock Down 0.2 %

Cabot stock opened at $87.33 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 2.08. Cabot Co. has a 52-week low of $70.63 and a 52-week high of $117.46. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $96.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $102.16. The firm has a market cap of $4.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.96, a PEG ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 1.21.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.81 by ($0.01). Cabot had a return on equity of 26.60% and a net margin of 9.51%. The firm had revenue of $1 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.01 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.65 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Cabot Co. will post 7.68 EPS for the current year.

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

Cabot Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of $0.43 per share. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.97%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. Cabot’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.52%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Cabot from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $105.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Monday, November 11th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of Cabot from $122.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a 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 given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cabot currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $102.00.

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.