Cabot (NYSE:CBT) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.66 by $0.12, Briefing.com reports. Cabot had a return on equity of 25.52% and a net margin of 11.24%. The business had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.04 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.33 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Cabot updated its FY24 guidance to $6.65-6.85 EPS and its FY 2024 guidance to 6.650-6.850 EPS.

Cabot Stock Performance

Shares of Cabot stock opened at $100.99 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $91.17 and its two-hundred day moving average is $81.92. The company has a market capitalization of $5.60 billion, a PE ratio of 13.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a quick ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 2.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. Cabot has a 52 week low of $63.73 and a 52 week high of $103.46.

Cabot Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 31st will be given a $0.43 dividend. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 31st. This is an increase from Cabot’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Cabot’s dividend payout ratio is 20.78%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on CBT. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their price target for the company from $88.00 to $95.00 in a report on Thursday, April 18th. StockNews.com lowered Cabot from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. UBS Group increased their price target on Cabot from $100.00 to $103.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Mizuho increased their price target on Cabot from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $93.67.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cabot

In other 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 transaction of $4,413,669.03. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 97,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,767,331.91. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 3.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.