Wedge Capital Management L L P NC Boosts Stock Position in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its holdings in shares of Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) by 0.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 50,746 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after buying an additional 274 shares during the quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC’s holdings in Cabot were worth $4,237,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Arlington Trust Co LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cabot during the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Milestone Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Cabot in the third quarter valued at about $79,000. NBC Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in Cabot in the third quarter valued at about $162,000. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in Cabot by 33.4% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,527 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $211,000 after purchasing an additional 632 shares during the period. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in Cabot in the third quarter valued at about $215,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.18% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. UBS Group downgraded shares of Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $90.00 to $87.00 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Mizuho began coverage on shares of Cabot in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. They set a “buy” rating and a $104.00 price target for the company. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cabot from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $88.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $90.17.

Cabot Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of CBT opened at $93.42 on Thursday. 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 firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $88.80 and a 200-day simple moving average of $80.17. Cabot Co. has a 1-year low of $63.73 and a 1-year high of $98.34. The stock has a market cap of $5.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.28.

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

Insider Transactions at Cabot

In other news, EVP Jeff Ji Zhu sold 55,233 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 97,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,767,331.91. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 3.07% of the company’s stock.

Cabot Company 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.