Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the five analysts that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $90.17.

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on CBT shares. UBS Group downgraded shares of Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $90.00 to $87.00 in a report on Monday, January 8th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cabot from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Mizuho started coverage on shares of Cabot in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. They set a “buy” rating and a $104.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $88.00 to $95.00 in a report on Thursday, April 18th.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Jeff Ji Zhu sold 55,233 shares of Cabot stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.91, for a total transaction of $4,413,669.03. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 97,201 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,767,331.91. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 3.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cabot

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CBT. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in Cabot by 460.7% in the third quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,895 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $127,000 after buying an additional 1,557 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its stake in shares of Cabot by 416.6% in the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 21,535 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $1,492,000 after acquiring an additional 17,366 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates raised its stake in shares of Cabot by 5.0% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 41,878 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $2,901,000 after acquiring an additional 1,986 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its stake in shares of Cabot by 18.8% in the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 11,476 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $795,000 after acquiring an additional 1,819 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Cabot by 17.5% in the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 175,336 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $12,146,000 after acquiring an additional 26,052 shares during the last quarter. 93.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cabot Stock Performance

Shares of CBT opened at $93.42 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $5.18 billion, a PE ratio of 12.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.28. Cabot has a one year low of $63.73 and a one year high of $98.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 2.04 and a quick ratio of 1.30. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $88.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $80.17.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 5th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.49 by $0.07. Cabot had a net margin of 11.24% and a return on equity of 25.52%. The company had revenue of $958.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $927.28 million. As a group, analysts expect that Cabot will post 6.58 earnings per share for the current year.

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.