Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.43

Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 10th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid 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 payment by an average of 6.0% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 13 years. Cabot has a payout ratio of 20.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research 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 Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CBT traded down $1.05 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $86.65. 366,620 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 297,770. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $102.83 and a 200 day moving average price of $102.39. The company has a market cap of $4.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.86, a PEG ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 2.08 and a quick ratio of 1.36. Cabot has a 52 week low of $70.63 and a 52 week high of $117.46.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Lisa M. Dumont sold 865 shares of the business’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 sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,742 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,088,571.08. The trade was a 8.15 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Jeff Ji Zhu sold 14,566 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 69,449 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,865,099.25. The trade was a 17.34 % decrease in their position. 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 three months. 3.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Cabot declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, December 3rd that permits the company to buyback 10,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the specialty chemicals company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

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.