Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. Buys 6,950 Shares of Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) by 20.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 40,394 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,950 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. owned approximately 0.07% of Cabot worth $3,688,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC purchased a new position in Cabot in the third quarter worth about $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in Cabot by 53.9% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 371 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 130 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Cabot by 197.9% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 417 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 277 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in Cabot by 33.4% in the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 475 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $48,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares during the period. Finally, CWM LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cabot by 35.6% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 564 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $63,000 after acquiring an additional 148 shares during the last quarter. 93.18% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on CBT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut 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. 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cabot has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $102.00.

Insider Activity

In other Cabot news, CAO Lisa M. Dumont sold 865 shares of Cabot stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $111.74, for a total value of $96,655.10. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,742 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,088,571.08. The trade was a 8.15 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Hobart Kalkstein sold 34,759 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.23, for a total value of $4,005,279.57. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 50,627 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,833,749.21. This represents a 40.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 50,190 shares of company stock worth $5,751,534 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 3.07% of the company’s stock.

Cabot Stock Performance

NYSE CBT opened at $86.65 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.36, a current ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. Cabot Co. has a twelve month low of $70.63 and a twelve month high of $117.46. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $102.83 and a 200-day moving average price of $102.39. The firm has a market cap of $4.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.21.

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

Cabot Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.43 per share. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.98%. Cabot’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.52%.

Cabot declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Tuesday, December 3rd that allows the company to repurchase 10,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization allows the specialty chemicals company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Cabot Company 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.