ProShare Advisors LLC Grows Stake in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT - Free Report) by 36.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 18,319 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock after acquiring an additional 4,905 shares during the quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC's holdings in Cabot were worth $1,673,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Cabot during the fourth quarter valued at $37,961,000. Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in Cabot by 67.7% during the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 349,369 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $31,901,000 after acquiring an additional 141,050 shares during the period. Copeland Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cabot by 21.6% during the 4th quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 761,372 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $69,521,000 after acquiring an additional 135,119 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in shares of Cabot by 8.5% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,323,347 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $120,835,000 after acquiring an additional 103,380 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Cabot by 27.1% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 451,513 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $41,228,000 after acquiring an additional 96,179 shares during the period. 93.18% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group dropped their target price 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Cabot from $105.00 to $85.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Cabot from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th.

Cabot Stock Performance

NYSE:CBT traded up $0.02 on Friday, hitting $74.07. The stock had a trading volume of 450,376 shares, compared to its average volume of 408,635. The stock has a market cap of $3.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 0.91. 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's 50-day simple moving average is $78.45 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $88.72. Cabot Co. has a 52-week low of $71.64 and a 52-week high of $117.46.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.90 earnings per share (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 analysts' expectations of $1.02 billion. Cabot had a return on equity of 26.79% and a net margin of 10.60%. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.78 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Cabot Co. will post 7.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Cabot Increases Dividend

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

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.