Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the five brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $87.67.

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on CBT. Mizuho began coverage on Cabot in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $104.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com cut Cabot from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. UBS Group cut Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $90.00 to $87.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday.

Insider Transactions at Cabot

In related news, EVP Jeff Ji Zhu sold 55,233 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.91, for a total value of $4,413,669.03. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 97,201 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,767,331.91. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 3.07% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cabot

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in shares of Cabot by 11.0% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 6,931,530 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $474,186,000 after purchasing an additional 686,769 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Cabot during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,471,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Cabot by 237.4% during the second quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 600,154 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $38,284,000 after purchasing an additional 422,273 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Cabot by 6.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,120,453 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $418,701,000 after purchasing an additional 374,834 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Cabot by 11.1% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,541,491 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $242,273,000 after acquiring an additional 353,154 shares during the last quarter. 93.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Cabot Price Performance

Cabot stock traded up $0.18 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $92.11. 36,571 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 305,305. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 2.04 and a quick ratio of 1.30. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $87.85 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $79.41. The company has a market capitalization of $5.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.91, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.28. Cabot has a 12-month low of $63.73 and a 12-month high of $98.34.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 5th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $958.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $927.28 million. Cabot had a return on equity of 25.52% and a net margin of 11.24%. Analysts forecast that Cabot will post 6.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.