Inspire Investing LLC Sells 7,068 Shares of Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

Inspire Investing LLC reduced its position in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT - Free Report) by 61.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,394 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock after selling 7,068 shares during the quarter. Inspire Investing LLC's holdings in Cabot were worth $401,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in CBT. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in Cabot by 103.9% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 113,614 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $12,699,000 after purchasing an additional 57,907 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Cabot in the third quarter valued at approximately $654,000. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Cabot by 20.8% during the 4th quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 40,394 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $3,688,000 after purchasing an additional 6,950 shares in the last quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cabot during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $609,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Cabot by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 707,433 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $79,070,000 after buying an additional 19,215 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.18% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on CBT shares. Mizuho reduced their price objective on shares of Cabot from $122.00 to $110.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Cabot from a "neutral" rating to an "underweight" rating and set a $105.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Monday, November 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Cabot presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $102.00.

Insider Transactions at Cabot

In other news, CAO Lisa M. Dumont sold 865 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $111.74, for a total value of $96,655.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,742 shares in the company, valued at $1,088,571.08. This represents a 8.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Hobart Kalkstein sold 34,759 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.23, for a total value of $4,005,279.57. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 50,627 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,833,749.21. This trade represents a 40.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 50,190 shares of company stock worth $5,751,534. Company insiders own 3.07% of the company's stock.

Cabot Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of Cabot stock traded down $0.26 during trading on Monday, reaching $88.06. The company had a trading volume of 466,432 shares, compared to its average volume of 340,076. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 2.08. Cabot Co. has a fifty-two week low of $70.63 and a fifty-two week high of $117.46. The firm's fifty day moving average is $97.96 and its 200-day moving average is $102.46. The company has a market cap of $4.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 1.21.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.80 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.81 by ($0.01). Cabot had a return on equity of 26.60% and a net margin of 9.51%. The firm had revenue of $1 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.01 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.65 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Cabot Co. will post 7.68 EPS for the current year.

Cabot Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of $0.43 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.95%. Cabot's dividend payout ratio is currently 25.52%.

Cabot declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, December 3rd that authorizes the company to repurchase 10,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the specialty chemicals company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.