Securian Asset Management Inc. Cuts Stock Holdings in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

Securian Asset Management Inc. lowered its stake in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) by 2.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,144 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 119 shares during the quarter. Securian Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Cabot were worth $378,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Cabot by 1.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,283,686 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $143,504,000 after purchasing an additional 22,719 shares during the last quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Cabot by 21.6% in the fourth 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 last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Cabot by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 710,608 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $64,886,000 after purchasing an additional 3,175 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Cabot by 13.2% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 355,334 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $39,716,000 after purchasing an additional 41,554 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers boosted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 649 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CBT has been the topic of several recent research reports. Mizuho decreased their price target on shares of 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 shares of Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Cabot from $105.00 to $85.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Cabot presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $97.00.

Cabot Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of CBT stock opened at $84.41 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.21, a PEG ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 1.21. Cabot Co. has a one year low of $79.57 and a one year high of $117.46. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $86.64 and its 200-day moving average price is $99.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 2.00 and a quick ratio of 1.29.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 3rd. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.76 EPS for the quarter, beating 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%. Sell-side analysts expect that Cabot Co. will post 7.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cabot Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 28th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.04%. Cabot’s payout ratio is 22.84%.

Cabot declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, December 3rd that authorizes the company to buyback 10,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the specialty chemicals company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.