Atria Investments Inc Buys 3,588 Shares of Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

Atria Investments Inc boosted its stake in shares of Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) by 18.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 22,617 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,588 shares during the period. Atria Investments Inc’s holdings in Cabot were worth $2,065,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Cabot by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,283,686 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $143,504,000 after acquiring an additional 22,719 shares during the last quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Cabot by 21.6% during the 4th quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 761,372 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $69,521,000 after acquiring an additional 135,119 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Cabot by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 710,608 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $64,886,000 after acquiring an additional 3,175 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Cabot by 13.2% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 355,334 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $39,716,000 after acquiring an additional 41,554 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers grew its holdings in Cabot by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 178,431 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $16,293,000 after acquiring an additional 649 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.18% of the company’s stock.

Cabot Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CBT opened at $84.84 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.27, a P/E/G ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 1.21. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $87.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $100.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 2.00 and a quick ratio of 1.29. Cabot Co. has a fifty-two week low of $79.57 and a fifty-two week high of $117.46.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 3rd. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.74 by $0.02. Cabot had a net margin of 10.60% and a return on equity of 26.79%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Cabot Co. will post 7.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Cabot announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase program on Tuesday, December 3rd that allows the company to buyback 10,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization allows the specialty chemicals company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Cabot Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a $0.43 dividend. 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 2.03%. Cabot’s dividend payout ratio is 22.84%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on CBT shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cabot from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of Cabot from $122.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Cabot from $105.00 to $85.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 21st. One equities research 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cabot presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.00.

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.