Dorsey Wright & Associates Purchases Shares of 35,061 Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

Dorsey Wright & Associates acquired a new position in shares of Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 35,061 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,201,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in Cabot during the 4th quarter worth approximately $37,961,000. Copeland Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Cabot by 21.6% during the fourth quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 761,372 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $69,521,000 after acquiring an additional 135,119 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in Cabot by 8.5% during the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,323,347 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $120,835,000 after acquiring an additional 103,380 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of Cabot by 27.1% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 451,513 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $41,228,000 after acquiring an additional 96,179 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lightrock Netherlands B.V. acquired a new position in shares of Cabot in the 4th quarter valued at about $6,228,000. 93.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on CBT. StockNews.com cut Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of Cabot from $122.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Cabot from $105.00 to $85.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $97.00.

Cabot Trading Down 2.2 %

NYSE CBT opened at $82.26 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 2.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. Cabot Co. has a 52 week low of $79.57 and a 52 week high of $117.46. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $85.71 and a 200-day moving average price of $98.16. The company has a market cap of $4.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.92, a P/E/G ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 1.21.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 3rd. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.76 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.74 by $0.02. Cabot had a net margin of 10.60% and a return on equity of 26.79%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Cabot Co. will post 7.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cabot Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th were paid a dividend of $0.43 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.09%. Cabot’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.84%.

Cabot declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Tuesday, December 3rd that authorizes the company to repurchase 10,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the specialty chemicals company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.