Stevens Capital Management LP Buys New Shares in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

Stevens Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 2,702 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $247,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Barclays PLC increased its holdings in Cabot by 103.9% in the third 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 in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Cabot in the 3rd quarter valued at $654,000. Delta Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Cabot during the 4th quarter valued at $274,000. Empowered Funds LLC bought a new position in Cabot during the fourth quarter worth $1,269,000. Finally, Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Cabot by 20.8% in the fourth quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 40,394 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $3,688,000 after purchasing an additional 6,950 shares during the period. 93.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on CBT. Mizuho cut their price objective 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 cut Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Cabot from $105.00 to $85.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Cabot currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $97.00.

Cabot Stock Performance

Shares of CBT opened at $84.06 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.16, a P/E/G ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 1.21. Cabot Co. has a 52 week low of $79.57 and a 52 week high of $117.46. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $86.28 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $98.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 2.00.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 3rd. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.76 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.74 by $0.02. Cabot had a return on equity of 26.79% and a net margin of 10.60%. Equities analysts forecast that Cabot Co. will post 7.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cabot Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th were given a $0.43 dividend. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.05%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. Cabot’s payout ratio is 22.84%.

Cabot declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share 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 generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are 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.