Hsbc Holdings PLC Increases Holdings in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its position in shares of Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT - Free Report) by 359.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 23,367 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock after purchasing an additional 18,277 shares during the quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC's holdings in Cabot were worth $2,129,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. R Squared Ltd acquired a new position in Cabot in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Cabot by 37.2% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 808 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $74,000 after purchasing an additional 219 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake 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 purchasing an additional 130 shares during the period. Manchester Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Cabot by 1,685.1% in the fourth 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 lifted its stake 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 buying an additional 616 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 93.18% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of Cabot from $122.00 to $110.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cabot from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 17th. UBS Group reduced their target price on Cabot from $93.00 to $83.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Cabot from $105.00 to $85.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 21st.

Cabot Stock Down 5.5 %

Shares of Cabot stock traded down $4.23 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $73.28. The company's stock had a trading volume of 162,367 shares, compared to its average volume of 395,587. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 2.00. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $80.96 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $92.06. The company has a market capitalization of $3.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.79, a P/E/G ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 0.91. Cabot Co. has a one year low of $72.01 and a one year high of $117.46.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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%. The company's quarterly revenue was down 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.78 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 30th will be issued a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.46%. This is an increase from Cabot's previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. Cabot's dividend payout ratio is currently 22.84%.

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.