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

Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) by 20.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 40,394 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,950 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Cabot were worth $3,688,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC bought a new position in Cabot during the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in shares of 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 last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cabot by 197.9% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 417 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 277 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Cabot by 33.4% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 475 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $48,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares during the period. Finally, CWM LLC grew its position in Cabot by 35.6% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 564 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $63,000 after acquiring an additional 148 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.18% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Hobart Kalkstein sold 34,759 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,833,749.21. This represents a 40.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Lisa M. Dumont sold 865 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 50,190 shares of company stock worth $5,751,534. 3.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Cabot Stock Performance

CBT stock opened at $86.65 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 1.36. Cabot Co. has a 1-year low of $70.63 and a 1-year 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 company has a market capitalization of $4.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.86, a PEG ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.21.

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

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 shares. This repurchase authorization allows the specialty chemicals company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Cabot Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Cabot from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $105.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of Cabot from $122.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $102.00.

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.