Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) to Issue $0.43 Quarterly Dividend

Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 10th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of 0.43 per share by the specialty chemicals company on Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.98%.

Cabot has raised its dividend by an average of 6.0% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 13 years. Cabot has a payout ratio of 20.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Cabot to earn $8.42 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.72 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 20.4%.

Cabot Price Performance

NYSE:CBT opened at $86.65 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $102.83 and its 200 day moving average price is $102.39. The firm has a market cap of $4.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.86, a PEG ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.21. Cabot has a 52-week low of $70.63 and a 52-week high of $117.46. The company has a quick ratio of 1.36, a current ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.80 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.81 by ($0.01). Cabot had a net margin of 9.51% and a return on equity of 26.60%. The company had revenue of $1 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.01 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.65 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Cabot will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Cabot

In related news, EVP Jeff Ji Zhu sold 14,566 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.25, for a total transaction of $1,649,599.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 69,449 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,865,099.25. This trade represents a 17.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Lisa M. Dumont sold 865 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $111.74, for a total value of $96,655.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,742 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,088,571.08. This represents a 8.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 50,190 shares of company stock valued at $5,751,534 over the last 90 days. 3.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on CBT shares. Mizuho lowered their price target on Cabot from $122.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Cabot from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $105.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday, November 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $102.00.

Cabot announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, December 3rd that permits the company to buyback 10,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization permits the specialty chemicals company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors 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.