Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) Shares Sold by Axa S.A.

Axa S.A. reduced its stake in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) by 4.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 11,996 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 505 shares during the period. Axa S.A.’s holdings in Cabot were worth $1,095,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. R Squared Ltd acquired a new stake in Cabot in the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Cabot by 37.2% in the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 808 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $74,000 after buying an additional 219 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cabot by 10.7% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,348 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $123,000 after buying an additional 130 shares during the period. Manchester Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cabot by 1,685.1% in the fourth quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 1,678 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $153,000 after buying an additional 1,584 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV boosted its stake in Cabot by 43.1% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,046 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $187,000 after buying an additional 616 shares in the last quarter. 93.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on CBT shares. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Cabot from $93.00 to $83.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. StockNews.com cut shares of Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Cabot from $105.00 to $85.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 21st.

Cabot Price Performance

NYSE CBT opened at $73.93 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.00, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. Cabot Co. has a 1 year low of $71.64 and a 1 year high of $117.46. The company has a market cap of $4.01 billion, a PE ratio of 9.82, a PEG ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 0.91. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $80.15 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $91.27.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 5th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.86 by $0.04. Cabot had a net margin of 10.60% and a return on equity of 26.79%. The firm had revenue of $936.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.78 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Cabot Co. will post 7.57 EPS for the current year.

Cabot Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 13th. Investors of record on Friday, May 30th will be paid a $0.45 dividend. This is an increase from Cabot’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. Cabot’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.29%.

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.