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

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

Cabot Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE CBT opened at $93.03 on Tuesday. Cabot has a 12-month low of $63.73 and a 12-month high of $98.34. The stock has a market cap of $5.16 billion, a PE ratio of 12.08, a P/E/G ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a current ratio of 2.04, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The company has a 50-day moving average of $87.25 and a 200 day moving average of $79.15.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 5th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $958.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $927.28 million. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Cabot will post 6.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cabot

In other Cabot news, EVP Jeff Ji Zhu sold 55,233 shares of Cabot stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 97,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,767,331.91. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 3.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cabot

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CBT. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 196 shares during the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust boosted its holdings in Cabot by 176.0% in the 1st quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 414 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 264 shares during the last quarter. Arlington Trust Co LLC acquired a new position in Cabot in the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Cabot by 81.8% in the 4th quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 460 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 207 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SRS Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Cabot by 372.0% in the 4th quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 505 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 398 shares during the last quarter. 93.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on CBT. UBS Group cut shares of Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $90.00 to $87.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. StockNews.com cut shares of Cabot from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Mizuho began coverage on shares of Cabot in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. They set a “buy” rating and a $104.00 target price for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $87.67.

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.