Natixis Advisors LLC Purchases 8,068 Shares of Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its position in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) by 7.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 124,079 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after buying an additional 8,068 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC owned approximately 0.23% of Cabot worth $11,330,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Cabot by 1.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,283,686 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $143,504,000 after buying an additional 22,719 shares during the last quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Cabot by 21.6% in the 4th quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 761,372 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $69,521,000 after purchasing an additional 135,119 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Cabot by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 710,608 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $64,886,000 after purchasing an additional 3,175 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Cabot by 13.2% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 355,334 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $39,716,000 after purchasing an additional 41,554 shares during the period. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers increased its position in Cabot by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 178,431 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $16,293,000 after buying an additional 649 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.18% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on CBT shares. Mizuho lowered their price objective on Cabot from $122.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. StockNews.com downgraded Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Cabot from $105.00 to $85.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.00.

Cabot Trading Down 0.3 %

CBT stock opened at $84.16 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $86.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $99.04. Cabot Co. has a fifty-two week low of $79.57 and a fifty-two week high of $117.46. The firm has a market cap of $4.56 billion, a PE ratio of 11.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 2.00.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last posted its earnings results on Monday, February 3rd. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Cabot Co. will post 7.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cabot declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, December 3rd that permits the company to buyback 10,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization permits the specialty chemicals company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Cabot Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th were given a dividend of $0.43 per share. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. Cabot’s dividend payout ratio is currently 22.84%.

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.