Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.43

Cabot Co. (NYSE:CBT) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, May 6th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 31st. This is a positive change from Cabot’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40.

Cabot has raised its dividend payment by an average of 3.9% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 1 years. Cabot has a payout ratio of 21.1% indicating that 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 Performance

CBT stock traded up $0.20 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $101.27. 36,903 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, 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. Cabot has a 1-year low of $63.73 and a 1-year high of $103.46. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $91.17 and its 200-day moving average price is $81.92. The firm has a market cap of $5.61 billion, a PE ratio of 13.12, a P/E/G ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.27.

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

Insider Activity at Cabot

In related news, EVP Jeff Ji Zhu sold 55,233 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 97,201 shares in the company, valued at $7,767,331.91. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 3.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Cabot from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered Cabot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $88.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Cabot from $100.00 to $103.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Cabot from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cabot presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $93.67.

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.