Freestone Grove Partners LP Buys Shares of 4,305 Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

Freestone Grove Partners LP purchased a new position in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 4,305 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock, valued at approximately $393,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CBT. R Squared Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Cabot during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Cabot by 37.2% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 808 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $74,000 after buying an additional 219 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Cabot by 10.7% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,348 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $123,000 after acquiring an additional 130 shares in the last quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Cabot by 1,685.1% during the fourth quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 1,678 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $153,000 after acquiring an additional 1,584 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in Cabot by 43.1% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,046 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $187,000 after purchasing an additional 616 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.18% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Cabot from $93.00 to $83.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 7th. StockNews.com lowered Cabot from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Cabot from $105.00 to $85.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 21st.

Cabot Price Performance

Shares of Cabot stock traded down $0.38 during trading on Friday, reaching $73.93. The company's stock had a trading volume of 381,847 shares, compared to its average volume of 402,680. Cabot Co. has a 12-month low of $71.64 and a 12-month high of $117.46. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 2.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $80.15 and a 200-day moving average price of $91.15. The company has a market capitalization of $4.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 0.91.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 5th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.86 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $936.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. Cabot had a net margin of 10.60% and a return on equity of 26.79%. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.78 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cabot Co. will post 7.57 EPS for the current year.

Cabot Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.43%. This is a boost from Cabot's previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. Cabot's payout ratio is presently 23.29%.

Cabot 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.