Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) Increases Dividend to $0.43 Per Share

Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, May 7th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, May 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.43 per share by the specialty chemicals company on Friday, June 14th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 31st. This is a positive change from Cabot’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40.

Cabot has raised its dividend payment by an average of 3.9% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 1 consecutive years. Cabot has a payout ratio of 21.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Cabot to earn $7.42 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 21.6%.

Cabot Stock Performance

Shares of CBT traded up $5.13 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $101.07. 753,322 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 305,450. Cabot has a 12 month low of $63.73 and a 12 month high of $103.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.27. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $90.82 and its 200-day moving average price is $81.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a current ratio of 2.04.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 6th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.66 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. Cabot had a return on equity of 25.52% and a net margin of 11.24%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.33 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Cabot will post 6.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CBT has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Cabot from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. StockNews.com lowered shares of Cabot from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $88.00 to $95.00 in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Cabot from $100.00 to $103.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Cabot has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $93.67.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cabot news, EVP Jeff Ji Zhu sold 55,233 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.91, for a total value of $4,413,669.03. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 97,201 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,767,331.91. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 3.07% of the company’s stock.

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.