Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) saw a large growth in short interest in 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. Based on an average trading volume of 316,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 5.4 days. Currently, 3.1% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered shares of Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $88.00 to $95.00 in a report on Thursday, April 18th. StockNews.com downgraded Cabot from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Mizuho initiated coverage on shares of Cabot in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. They set a “buy” rating and a $104.00 price objective for the company. Finally, UBS Group downgraded Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $90.00 to $87.00 in a report on Monday, January 8th. 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, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $90.17.

Cabot Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE CBT opened at $91.96 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $5.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.94, a P/E/G ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 2.04 and a quick ratio of 1.30. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $90.11 and a 200-day simple moving average of $81.08. Cabot has a 1 year low of $63.73 and a 1 year high of $98.34.

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) last posted its earnings results on Monday, February 5th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $958.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $927.28 million. Cabot had a net margin of 11.24% and a return on equity of 25.52%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Cabot will post 6.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Cabot

In other news, EVP Jeff Ji Zhu sold 55,233 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was 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 directly 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 is available through this hyperlink. 3.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cabot

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Cabot by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,361,129 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $440,635,000 after purchasing an additional 24,961 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Cabot by 0.4% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,908,495 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $340,011,000 after buying an additional 20,589 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Cabot by 2.1% during the third quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 3,167,091 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $219,384,000 after acquiring an additional 66,422 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Cabot by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,313,254 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $109,664,000 after acquiring an additional 32,735 shares during the period. Finally, Sei Investments Co. increased its stake in shares of Cabot by 33.9% in the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 812,614 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $67,854,000 after purchasing an additional 205,582 shares during the period. 93.18% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.