Cabot (NYSE:CBT) Shares Gap Up – What’s Next?

Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $110.60, but opened at $115.16. Cabot shares last traded at $110.65, with a volume of 31,443 shares traded.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Cabot from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $105.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, November 11th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Cabot from $103.00 to $98.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Cabot from $103.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cabot has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $105.00.

Cabot Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $111.09 and a 200 day simple moving average of $103.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.18.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.80 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 company had revenue of $1 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.01 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.65 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Cabot Co. will post 7.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cabot Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be paid a $0.43 dividend. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. Cabot’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.52%.

Cabot declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Tuesday, December 3rd that permits the company to repurchase 10,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the specialty chemicals company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Cabot

In other news, CAO Lisa M. Dumont sold 865 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $1,088,571.08. This represents a 8.15 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Jeff Ji Zhu sold 14,566 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.25, for a total value of $1,649,599.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 69,449 shares in the company, valued at $7,865,099.25. The trade was a 17.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 50,190 shares of company stock valued at $5,751,534. 3.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cabot

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC bought a new stake in Cabot in the third quarter valued at about $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in shares of Cabot by 53.9% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 371 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares during the period. CWM LLC grew its stake in shares of Cabot by 60.6% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 416 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 157 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cabot by 197.9% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 417 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $47,000 after buying an additional 277 shares in the last quarter. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Cabot by 33.4% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 475 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $48,000 after buying an additional 119 shares during the period. 93.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Cabot Company 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.