Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) Announces $0.43 Quarterly Dividend

Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 10th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of 0.43 per share by the specialty chemicals company on Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.98%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th.

Cabot has raised its dividend payment by an average of 6.0% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 13 years. Cabot has a payout ratio of 20.7% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Cabot to earn $8.37 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.72 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 20.5%.

Cabot Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CBT opened at $87.01 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 2.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $88.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $100.92. The company has a market cap of $4.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.55, a PEG ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 1.19. Cabot has a twelve month low of $82.27 and a twelve month high of $117.46.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 3rd. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.74 by $0.02. Cabot had a net margin of 10.60% and a return on equity of 26.79%. Research analysts predict that Cabot will post 7.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Cabot declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program 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. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on CBT. StockNews.com raised shares of Cabot from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Mizuho dropped their price target on Cabot from $122.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Cabot from $105.00 to $85.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus 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.