Short Interest in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) Drops By 14.5%

Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,590,000 shares, a decrease of 14.5% from the March 15th total of 1,860,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 310,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.1 days. Approximately 2.9% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Cabot Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CBT opened at $93.27 on Friday. Cabot has a fifty-two week low of $63.73 and a fifty-two week high of $98.34. The stock has a market cap of $5.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.11, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a current ratio of 2.04. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $86.81 and its 200 day simple moving average is $78.91.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 5th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $927.28 million. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Cabot will post 6.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Cabot

In related news, EVP Jeff Ji Zhu sold 55,233 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.91, for a total value of $4,413,669.03. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 97,201 shares in the company, valued at $7,767,331.91. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 3.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cabot

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Cabot by 143.1% in the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 333 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 196 shares during the last quarter. Arlington Trust Co LLC bought a new position in Cabot in the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its holdings in shares of Cabot by 176.0% during the 1st quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 414 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 264 shares during the last quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cabot by 81.8% during the 4th quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 460 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 207 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SRS Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Cabot by 372.0% during the 4th quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 505 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 398 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CBT has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Mizuho initiated coverage on Cabot in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. They set a “buy” rating and a $104.00 price target for the company. UBS Group downgraded Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $90.00 to $87.00 in a report on Monday, January 8th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Cabot from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cabot has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $87.67.

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.