Norges Bank Acquires Shares of 415,741 Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT)

Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 415,741 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock, valued at approximately $37,961,000. Norges Bank owned about 0.77% of Cabot as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Cabot by 27.1% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 451,513 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $41,228,000 after buying an additional 96,179 shares during the last quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in Cabot in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $247,000. LPL Financial LLC grew its holdings in Cabot by 241.6% in the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 31,071 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $2,837,000 after buying an additional 21,974 shares during the last quarter. Fox Run Management L.L.C. grew its holdings in Cabot by 27.1% in the 4th quarter. Fox Run Management L.L.C. now owns 5,904 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $539,000 after buying an additional 1,259 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new stake in Cabot in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,315,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.18% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on CBT shares. UBS Group lowered their target price on Cabot from $93.00 to $83.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Monday. StockNews.com downgraded Cabot from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Mizuho reduced their price objective on Cabot from $122.00 to $110.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Cabot from $105.00 to $85.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $93.25.

Cabot Price Performance

Shares of Cabot stock traded down $3.08 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $77.81. 42,179 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 384,329. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 2.00 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The firm has a market cap of $4.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.33, a PEG ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 1.04. Cabot Co. has a 52 week low of $73.63 and a 52 week high of $117.46. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $83.85 and a 200-day simple moving average of $96.35.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 3rd. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.74 by $0.02. Cabot had a return on equity of 26.79% and a net margin of 10.60%. Research analysts forecast that Cabot Co. will post 7.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Cabot Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th were paid a $0.43 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 28th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.21%. Cabot's payout ratio is 22.84%.

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.