Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC Acquires New Holdings in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC bought a new position in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 2,250 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $205,000.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Eastern Bank grew its holdings in shares of Cabot by 577.1% in the third quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 269,270 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $30,096,000 after acquiring an additional 229,500 shares during the period. Fiera Capital Corp bought a new stake in shares of Cabot during the 3rd quarter valued at about $19,643,000. Copeland Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Cabot by 30.4% during the 3rd quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 626,253 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $69,996,000 after purchasing an additional 146,179 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in shares of Cabot by 103.9% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 113,614 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $12,699,000 after purchasing an additional 57,907 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Cabot by 42.8% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 181,551 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $20,292,000 after buying an additional 54,435 shares during the last quarter. 93.18% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CBT has been the subject of a number of research reports. Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of Cabot from $122.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Cabot from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $105.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, November 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Cabot presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $102.00.

Cabot Price Performance

NYSE CBT opened at $86.17 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $4.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.78, a PEG ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 1.19. Cabot Co. has a 12 month low of $77.21 and a 12 month high of $117.46. The company’s 50 day moving average is $93.48 and its two-hundred day moving average is $101.71. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last released its 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 9.51% and a return on equity of 26.60%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Cabot Co. will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Cabot Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.43 per share. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. Cabot’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.84%.

Cabot announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, December 3rd that allows the company to repurchase 10,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the specialty chemicals company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cabot news, EVP Jeff Ji Zhu sold 14,566 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.25, for a total transaction of $1,649,599.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 69,449 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,865,099.25. This represents a 17.34 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Hobart Kalkstein sold 34,759 shares of Cabot stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.23, for a total value of $4,005,279.57. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 50,627 shares in the company, valued at $5,833,749.21. This trade represents a 40.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 50,190 shares of company stock valued at $5,751,534. Corporate insiders own 3.03% of the company’s stock.

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.