Cabot (NYSE:CBT) Stock Gets Downgrade from Zacks Research

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) was downgraded by stock analysts at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note issued on Thursday, Zacks reports.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on the company. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Cabot in a report on Friday, August 21st. Truist Financial lowered their price target on shares of Cabot from $100.00 to $95.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Cabot from $86.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Cabot from $70.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $85.60.

Cabot Trading Down 2.5%

CBT traded down $1.85 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $71.12. 285,481 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 380,192. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.74, a P/E/G ratio of 8.91 and a beta of 0.83. Cabot has a 1-year low of $58.33 and a 1-year high of $94.53. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $76.87 and its 200-day moving average price is $79.54. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 2nd. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.61 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.55 by $0.06. Cabot had a return on equity of 19.79% and a net margin of 5.69%. The company had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $927.29 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.70 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Cabot will post 6.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Sean Keohane sold 134,895 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.00, for a total value of $11,466,075.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 404,134 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,351,390. The trade was a 25.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 3.08% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cabot

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CBT. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new position in Cabot in the second quarter valued at approximately $150,772,000. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Cabot by 6.8% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,165,434 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $196,665,000 after buying an additional 138,098 shares during the period. First Eagle Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Cabot by 52.5% during the 2nd quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 208,450 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $18,931,000 after buying an additional 71,800 shares during the period. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new stake in shares of Cabot during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,881,000. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Cabot by 96.2% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 43,219 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $3,255,000 after acquiring an additional 21,194 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.18% of the company’s stock.

About Cabot

Cabot Corporation (NYSE: CBT) is a global specialty chemicals and performance materials company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The company develops and manufactures materials used to improve the performance, durability, conductivity, color and purity of products across a range of industries.

Cabot’s products include carbon black used in tires, rubber goods, coatings, plastics and printing inks; specialty carbons and conductive materials for batteries and other applications; and specialty compounds and masterbatches.