Cabot (NYSE:CBT) to Repurchase 10,000,000 Outstanding Stock

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Tuesday, December 3rd, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase 10,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the specialty chemicals company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CBT. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Cabot from $103.00 to $98.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Mizuho raised their price target on Cabot from $103.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Cabot from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $105.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, November 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $105.00.

Cabot Price Performance

Shares of CBT stock traded down $1.82 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $110.60. 270,665 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 426,694. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 2.08. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $111.08 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $103.06. Cabot has a 12 month low of $70.63 and a 12 month high of $117.46. The company has a market cap of $6.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.41, a PEG 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 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.81 by ($0.01). Cabot had a net margin of 9.51% and a return on equity of 26.60%. The business had revenue of $1 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.01 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.65 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Cabot will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Cabot Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th 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 1.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. Cabot’s dividend payout ratio is presently 25.52%.

Insider Activity at Cabot

In related news, EVP Jeff Ji Zhu sold 14,566 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 69,449 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,865,099.25. The trade was a 17.34 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Lisa M. Dumont sold 865 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were 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 directly owns 9,742 shares in the company, valued at $1,088,571.08. This represents a 8.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 50,190 shares of company stock valued at $5,751,534 over the last quarter. 3.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.