Short Interest in Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) Increases By 6.9%

Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,700,000 shares, a growth of 6.9% from the March 31st total of 1,590,000 shares. Approximately 3.1% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 316,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.4 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Jeff Ji Zhu sold 55,233 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 97,201 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,767,331.91. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 3.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cabot

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Cabot by 143.1% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 333 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 196 shares in the last quarter. Arlington Trust Co LLC acquired a new position in Cabot in the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in Cabot by 81.8% in the fourth quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 460 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 207 shares during the last quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Cabot by 372.0% during the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 505 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 398 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new position in Cabot during the 4th quarter worth approximately $44,000. 93.18% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cabot Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE CBT opened at $91.96 on Thursday. 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 has a 1 year low of $63.73 and a 1 year high of $98.34. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $90.11 and its 200-day simple moving average is $81.08. The firm has a market cap of $5.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.94, a PEG ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.27.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 5th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.49 by $0.07. Cabot had a return on equity of 25.52% and a net margin of 11.24%. The company had revenue of $958.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $927.28 million. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Cabot will post 6.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CBT has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Mizuho started coverage on shares of Cabot in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. They set a “buy” rating and a $104.00 price target on the stock. StockNews.com lowered Cabot from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their target price for the company from $88.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, UBS Group cut 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. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $90.17.

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.