Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) to Issue Dividend Increase – $0.43 Per Share

Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, May 6th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders 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 by an average of 3.9% per year 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% meaning 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 Up 0.2 %

Cabot stock traded up $0.20 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $101.27. The stock had a trading volume of 36,903 shares, compared to its average volume of 305,334. The company has a quick ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 2.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $91.17 and its 200-day moving average price is $81.92. Cabot has a 12-month low of $63.73 and a 12-month high of $103.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.27.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on CBT shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered shares of Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $88.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Cabot from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Cabot from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Cabot from $100.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Three equities 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, Cabot currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $93.67.

Insider Transactions at Cabot

In other Cabot news, EVP Jeff Ji Zhu sold 55,233 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.91, for a total transaction of $4,413,669.03. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 97,201 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,767,331.91. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company 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.