Cabot Corp (CBT) will raise its quarterly dividend by 5.7 percent to 37 cents per share in 2021. This follows a dividend hike of 6.1 percent to $0.35 per share in the second quarter of 2019. Last year the specialty chemicals company did not announce a dividend hike.

The dividend CBT is payable on December 10, 2021, to stockholders of record at the close of business on November 26, 2021. A new annualized rate of $1.48 per share yields 2.5% to Cabot shareholders at a stock price of $58.27. The annual dividend payment by CBT will jump to $84 million.

“Our longstanding history of consistently paying dividends for over 50 years is a source of great pride for us, and this decision further affirms our continued commitment to provide value to our shareholders,” said Sean Keohane, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cabot Corporation. “The decision to increase the dividend demonstrates the Board’s confidence in our ability to generate strong cash flow to fund high confidence growth investments and return cash to shareholders through a competitive dividend.”

Cabot Corporation is a specialty chemicals and performance materials company. Cabot is a provider of provider of rubber and specialty carbons, activated carbon, inkjet colorants, cesium formate drilling fluids, masterbatches and conductive compounds, fumed silica, and aerogel.  Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, Cabot's roots date back to 1882 when Godfrey Lowell Cabot and his brother Samuel Cabot bought the McCue well near Worthington, Pennsylvania, USA and opened their first carbon black plant. The company went public in 1968.