AQR Capital Management LLC Sells 10,797 Shares of Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

AQR Capital Management LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT - Free Report) by 4.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 216,834 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock after selling 10,797 shares during the quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC owned approximately 0.40% of Cabot worth $19,764,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. R Squared Ltd acquired a new position in Cabot in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Cabot by 37.2% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 808 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $74,000 after acquiring an additional 219 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Cabot by 10.7% during 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 during the period. Manchester Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Cabot by 1,685.1% in the 4th quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 1,678 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $153,000 after purchasing an additional 1,584 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in Cabot by 43.1% in the 4th 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. 93.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on CBT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Cabot from $105.00 to $85.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 21st. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Cabot from $93.00 to $83.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Cabot from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday.

Cabot Price Performance

CBT traded down $0.38 during trading on Friday, hitting $73.93. 381,847 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 402,680. 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 cap of $4.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.82, a PEG ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 0.91. Cabot Co. has a twelve month low of $71.64 and a twelve month high of $117.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 2.00 and a quick ratio of 1.29.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 5th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.86 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $936.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. Cabot had a return on equity of 26.79% and a net margin of 10.60%. Cabot's revenue for the quarter was down 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.78 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Cabot Co. will post 7.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cabot Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 13th. Investors of record on Friday, May 30th will be paid a $0.45 dividend. This is an increase from Cabot's previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.43%. Cabot's dividend payout ratio is presently 23.29%.

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.