Cabot (NYSE:CBT) Price Target Raised to $103.00 at UBS Group

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) had its price target upped by UBS Group from $100.00 to $103.00 in a research report released on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the specialty chemicals company’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of Cabot from a buy rating to a hold rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $88.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Mizuho increased their price objective on Cabot from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, StockNews.com cut Cabot from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cabot has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $93.67.

Cabot Stock Performance

Shares of Cabot stock opened at $100.99 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $91.17 and a 200 day simple moving average of $81.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.12, a PEG ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 2.04 and a quick ratio of 1.30. Cabot has a one year low of $63.73 and a one year high of $103.46.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last issued its earnings results on Monday, May 6th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.66 by $0.12. Cabot had a return on equity of 25.52% and a net margin of 11.24%. The company had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.33 earnings per share. Cabot’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Cabot will post 6.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cabot Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 14th. Investors of record on Friday, May 31st will be given a dividend of $0.43 per share. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. This is an increase from Cabot’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 31st. Cabot’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.78%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Jeff Ji Zhu sold 55,233 shares of Cabot stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.91, for a total transaction of $4,413,669.03. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 97,201 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,767,331.91. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 3.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cabot

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CBT. Raymond James & Associates raised its stake in shares of Cabot by 5.0% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 41,878 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $2,901,000 after buying an additional 1,986 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its stake in shares of Cabot by 18.8% in the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 11,476 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $795,000 after purchasing an additional 1,819 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Cabot by 17.5% in the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 175,336 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $12,146,000 after purchasing an additional 26,052 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cabot during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $248,000. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in Cabot by 1,416.4% in the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 51,814 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $3,589,000 after buying an additional 48,397 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 93.18% of the company’s stock.

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.