Lazard Asset Management LLC Buys 7,408 Shares of Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT - Free Report) by 31.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 30,752 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock after acquiring an additional 7,408 shares during the quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC owned about 0.06% of Cabot worth $2,807,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CBT. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cabot by 103.9% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 113,614 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $12,699,000 after acquiring an additional 57,907 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Cabot in the third quarter worth approximately $654,000. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cabot by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 8,198 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $749,000 after buying an additional 760 shares during the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cabot by 8.4% in the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 4,113 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $376,000 after buying an additional 317 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ritholtz Wealth Management boosted its holdings in shares of Cabot by 165.5% in the fourth quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 5,543 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $506,000 after buying an additional 3,455 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.18% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on CBT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective 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 lowered their price target 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. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Cabot from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th.

Cabot Price Performance

NYSE:CBT traded up $0.07 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $73.44. 64,326 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 405,915. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 2.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. Cabot Co. has a 1 year low of $71.64 and a 1 year high of $117.46. The company has a market cap of $3.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 0.91. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $78.86 and a 200 day moving average price of $89.41.

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

Cabot Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 30th will be given a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.45%. This is a boost from Cabot's previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. 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.