Share Repurchase Program Announced by Cabot (NYSE:CBT) Board

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Tuesday, December 3rd, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback 10,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the specialty chemicals company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Cabot Stock Down 1.6 %

CBT traded down $1.82 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $110.60. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 270,665 shares, compared to its average volume of 426,694. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $111.08 and its 200-day moving average is $103.06. Cabot has a 1 year low of $70.63 and a 1 year high of $117.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.41, a PEG ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.18.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last released its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.81 by ($0.01). The firm 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%. The company’s revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.65 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Cabot will post 7.67 EPS for the current year.

Cabot Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be issued a $0.43 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.56%. Cabot’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.52%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on CBT. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Cabot from $103.00 to $98.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Cabot from $103.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Cabot from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $105.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Monday, November 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cabot currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $105.00.

Insider Activity at Cabot

In other Cabot news, EVP Jeff Ji Zhu sold 14,566 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.25, for a total value of $1,649,599.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 69,449 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,865,099.25. This trade represents a 17.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lisa M. Dumont sold 865 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were 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 owns 9,742 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,088,571.08. This represents a 8.15 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 50,190 shares of company stock worth $5,751,534. Company insiders own 3.07% of the company’s stock.

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.