Ritholtz Wealth Management Has $506,000 Holdings in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

Ritholtz Wealth Management increased its holdings in shares of Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) by 165.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,543 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,455 shares during the quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings in Cabot were worth $506,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in shares of Cabot by 103.9% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 113,614 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $12,699,000 after buying an additional 57,907 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. acquired a new position in Cabot during the third quarter valued at approximately $654,000. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Cabot by 20.8% in the fourth quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 40,394 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $3,688,000 after purchasing an additional 6,950 shares in the last quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cabot during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $609,000. Finally, Earnest Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Cabot by 2.4% during the 2nd quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 3,363,398 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $309,063,000 after purchasing an additional 80,096 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on CBT. Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of Cabot from $122.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Cabot from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $105.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, November 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $102.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Jeff Ji Zhu sold 14,566 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 69,449 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,865,099.25. This represents a 17.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Hobart Kalkstein sold 34,759 shares of Cabot stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.23, for a total transaction of $4,005,279.57. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 50,627 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,833,749.21. This trade represents a 40.71 % decrease in their position. 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 owned by insiders.

Cabot Stock Up 1.3 %

CBT stock opened at $91.37 on Tuesday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $99.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $102.42. Cabot Co. has a 1-year low of $70.63 and a 1-year high of $117.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.97 billion, a PE ratio of 13.56, a PEG ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.80 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.81 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $1 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.01 billion. Cabot had a net margin of 9.51% and a return on equity of 26.60%. Cabot’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.65 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Cabot Co. will post 7.67 EPS for the current year.

Cabot Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.43 per share. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.88%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. Cabot’s dividend payout ratio is presently 25.52%.

Cabot announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, December 3rd that authorizes the company to repurchase 10,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the specialty chemicals company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.