13,902 Shares in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) Bought by Empowered Funds LLC

Empowered Funds LLC purchased a new stake 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 institutional investor purchased 13,902 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,269,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. R Squared Ltd bought a new stake in Cabot during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Cabot by 197.9% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 417 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $47,000 after acquiring an additional 277 shares during the period. CWM LLC grew its stake in shares of Cabot by 35.6% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 564 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $63,000 after acquiring an additional 148 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its position in Cabot by 22.0% during the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 650 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $73,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares during the period. Finally, Values First Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Cabot in the 3rd quarter valued at $82,000. 93.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CBT has been the topic of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Cabot from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $105.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Monday, November 11th. Mizuho lowered their price target on Cabot from $122.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $102.00.

Cabot Price Performance

Shares of Cabot stock opened at $86.53 on Monday. Cabot Co. has a twelve month low of $80.21 and a twelve month high of $117.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 2.00. The firm has a market cap of $4.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 1.19. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $91.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $101.34.

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

Cabot Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.43 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.99%. Cabot’s payout ratio is presently 22.84%.

Cabot announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback 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. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board 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.