Cabot (CBT) versus Its Competitors Head-To-Head Review

Cabot (NYSE:CBT) is one of 295 public companies in the “Chemicals” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its peers? We will compare Cabot to similar businesses based on the strength of its institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, profitability and dividends.

Volatility and Risk

Cabot has a beta of 0.83, meaning that its stock price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cabot’s peers have a beta of 0.93, meaning that their average stock price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Cabot and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cabot	5.69%	19.64%	8.68%
Cabot Competitors	-59.15%	-0.44%	-1.38%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Cabot and its peers top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cabot	$3.74 billion	$213.00 million	18.09
Cabot Competitors	$8.01 billion	$230.87 million	9.81

Cabot’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than Cabot. Cabot is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Cabot and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cabot	2	3	2	0	2.00
Cabot Competitors	3248	12216	14134	519	2.40

Cabot presently has a consensus target price of $85.60, suggesting a potential upside of 18.01%. As a group, “Chemicals” companies have a potential upside of 8.30%. Given Cabot’s higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Cabot is more favorable than its peers.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

93.2% of Cabot shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 48.0% of shares of all “Chemicals” companies are owned by institutional investors. 3.1% of Cabot shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 13.9% of shares of all “Chemicals” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Cabot pays an annual dividend of $1.89 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Cabot pays out 47.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Chemicals” companies pay a dividend yield of 3.1% and pay out 103.9% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Cabot has raised its dividend for 14 consecutive years.

Summary

Cabot peers beat Cabot on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

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. The company also provides specialty carbons for use in inks, coatings, plastics, adhesives, toners, batteries, and displays; conductive additives and fumed alumina used in lead acid and lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles; fumed silica used in adhesives, sealants, cosmetics, batteries, inks, toners, silicone elastomers, coatings, polishing slurries, and pharmaceuticals; and fumed alumina for use in various products, including inkjet media, lighting, coatings, cosmetics, and polishing slurries. In addition, it offers aerogel, a hydrophobic, silica-based particle to use in various thermal insulation and specialty chemical applications; masterbatch and conductive compound products that are used in automotive, industrial, packaging, infrastructure, agriculture, consumer products, and electronics industries; and inkjet colorants for inkjet printing applications. The company sells its products through distributors and sales representatives in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. Cabot Corporation was founded in 1882 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.