Bank of America Corp DE Sells 188,063 Shares of Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

Bank of America Corp DE cut its stake in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) by 11.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,479,125 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 188,063 shares during the quarter. Bank of America Corp DE owned about 2.73% of Cabot worth $135,059,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. R Squared Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Cabot during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Cabot by 37.2% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 808 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $74,000 after buying an additional 219 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Cabot by 10.7% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,348 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $123,000 after buying an additional 130 shares during the last quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 1,584 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV lifted its stake in shares of Cabot by 43.1% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,046 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $187,000 after acquiring an additional 616 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.18% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on CBT. StockNews.com downgraded Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Cabot from $105.00 to $85.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, 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 research note on Monday, April 7th.

Cabot Stock Performance

CBT stock opened at $73.93 on Friday. Cabot Co. has a 1-year low of $71.64 and a 1-year high of $117.46. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $80.15 and a 200 day moving average price of $91.27. The company has a market capitalization of $4.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.82, a PEG ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 0.91. 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) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $936.00 million during 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 was down 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.78 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Cabot Co. will post 7.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cabot Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 30th will be given a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.43%. This is a positive change from Cabot’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. 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.