Bridgewater Associates LP Increases Stake in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

Bridgewater Associates LP raised its position in shares of Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) by 11.3% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 58,063 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,881 shares during the quarter. Bridgewater Associates LP’s holdings in Cabot were worth $6,490,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Earnest Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Cabot by 2.4% during the second quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 3,363,398 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $309,063,000 after acquiring an additional 80,096 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Cabot by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,348,972 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $123,965,000 after purchasing an additional 4,437 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in shares of Cabot by 7.3% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 976,709 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $89,750,000 after purchasing an additional 66,171 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Cabot by 5.9% during the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 913,259 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $83,919,000 after purchasing an additional 51,178 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Cabot by 2.8% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 707,433 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $79,070,000 after buying an additional 19,215 shares during the last quarter. 93.18% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cabot Trading Up 0.5 %

Cabot stock opened at $109.62 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $111.03 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $102.91. Cabot Co. has a 52-week low of $70.63 and a 52-week high of $117.46. The company has a quick ratio of 1.36, a current ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The company has a market cap of $5.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.30, a P/E/G ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.20.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last announced its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.80 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.81 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $1 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.01 billion. Cabot had a net margin of 9.51% and a return on equity of 26.60%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.65 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Cabot Co. will post 7.67 EPS for the current year.

Cabot Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be issued a dividend of $0.43 per share. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. Cabot’s dividend payout ratio is presently 25.52%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CBT. UBS Group decreased their target price on Cabot from $103.00 to $98.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Cabot from $103.00 to $122.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Cabot from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $105.00 target price on the stock. in a 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $105.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cabot

In related news, CEO Sean D. Keohane sold 25,617 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.55, for a total value of $2,601,406.35. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 331,174 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,630,719.70. This represents a 7.18 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Hobart Kalkstein sold 34,759 shares of Cabot stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.23, for a total transaction of $4,005,279.57. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 50,627 shares in the company, valued at $5,833,749.21. This represents a 40.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 75,807 shares of company stock valued at $8,352,941. Company insiders own 3.07% of the company’s stock.

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.