Leeward Investments LLC MA Buys 47,682 Shares of Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

Leeward Investments LLC MA increased its position in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) by 41.1% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 163,617 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after acquiring an additional 47,682 shares during the quarter. Leeward Investments LLC MA’s holdings in Cabot were worth $15,085,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Cabot by 0.4% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,361,129 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $440,635,000 after buying an additional 24,961 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in Cabot by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,908,495 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $340,011,000 after acquiring an additional 20,589 shares during the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC lifted its position in Cabot by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 3,167,091 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $219,384,000 after acquiring an additional 66,422 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Cabot by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,313,254 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $109,664,000 after purchasing an additional 32,735 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. increased its holdings in shares of Cabot by 33.9% in the 4th quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 812,614 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $67,854,000 after purchasing an additional 205,582 shares in the last quarter. 93.18% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CBT has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. StockNews.com cut Cabot from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price target for the company from $88.00 to $95.00 in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Cabot from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 7th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Cabot from $100.00 to $103.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $91.80.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cabot news, SVP Karen A. Kalita sold 13,764 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.73, for a total transaction of $1,400,211.72. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 34,312 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,490,559.76. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 3.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Cabot Stock Performance

NYSE:CBT traded up $0.43 on Thursday, hitting $89.81. The stock had a trading volume of 214,256 shares, compared to its average volume of 376,080. Cabot Co. has a 52-week low of $64.15 and a 52-week high of $103.49. The stock has a market cap of $4.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 2.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $97.72 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $88.88.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 6th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.66 by $0.12. Cabot had a net margin of 11.51% and a return on equity of 26.21%. The company had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.04 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.33 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Cabot Co. will post 6.78 earnings per share for the current year.

Cabot Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 31st were paid a $0.43 dividend. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.92%. This is a positive change from Cabot’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 31st. Cabot’s dividend payout ratio is 21.77%.

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.