Cabot Corp. CBT
Cabot Corp. remains a hold at $85.18, caught between improving margins and eroding earnings. FY2025 operating margin expanded to 16.7% from 15.4% and gross margin reached 25.3%, yet revenue fell 7% to $3.71B and adjusted EPS in Q3 FY2026 declined to $1.67 from $1.90 a year ago, with reported diluted EPS of just $0.12 due to sizable charges.
The EV/EBITDA of 7.86x trades at a 36% discount to the peer median of 12.19x, but the P/E of 23.6x sits at a 13% premium to peers, suggesting the market has already priced in margin recovery. A new $350M senior notes offering at 4.950% and the CEO transition add near-term uncertainty, while smart money flows are only marginally positive with fund count declining from 54 to 49.
What could go wrong
- Earnings erosion. Q3 FY2026 adjusted EPS of $1.67 is down from $1.90 a year ago and reported diluted EPS was only $0.12 due to charges, signaling quality-of-earnings concerns.
- Revenue decline. FY2025 revenue fell 7% to $3.71B from $3.99B, and Reinforcement Materials segment faces margin pressure that Performance Chemicals strength only partially offsets.
- Increased leverage. New $350M senior notes at 4.950% due 2029 priced Aug 12, 2026 adds to existing total debt of $1.215B as of FY2025.
- Leadership transition. CEO Sean Keohane exercised options and sold 91,923 shares at $86.41 on Aug 7, 2026, and his retirement introduces execution risk during battery materials capacity ramp.
What would change my mind
Where this comes from: derived_metrics FY2025 · FMP fundamentals FY2025 · Q3 FY2026 earnings release (GlobeNewsWire 2026-08-03) · peer_relative composite. Orin's read on CBT; not advice.
Twelve months actual closes to 2026-09-23 · actual filings
50-day average 200-day average · volume below
On file
All CBT filingsLargest holders · 13F Q2 2026
Money flow| Filer | Position | Of fund |
|---|---|---|
| Earnest Partners | $303.9M | 1.1% of fund |
| Vanguard Portfolio Management | $279.4M | 0.0% of fund |
| Wellington Management Group Llp | $219.5M | 0.0% of fund |
| Vanguard Capital Management | $210.8M | 0.0% of fund |
| State Street | $196.7M | 0.0% of fund |
| Geode Capital Management | $161.6M | 0.0% of fund |
57 filers · quarter ended Q2 2026 · positions, not flows
Insiders, last 24 months: 217 Form 4 filings, net $3.1M. Of the 50 on hand, 0 were open-market purchases and 3 sales— the rest are grants, option exercises and tax withholding.
Ask Orin about CBT
Orin answers questions about CBT from its filings, transcripts and numbers — with the source behind every claim. Your own desk starts with 3 free days, card required.
Start 3 free days →Where it trades
| Metric | Now | Own median | Sector |
|---|---|---|---|
| P/E | 21.8× | — | 29.8× |
| EV/EBITDA | 7.4× | — | — |
| P/S | 1.12× | — | — |
| P/B | 2.5× | — | — |
-1.3%
free-cash-flow growth every year for 10 years, discounted at 10%, is what today’s price implies — starting from $0.4B of trailing free cash flow. It is an assumption the market is making, not a forecast Orin is making.
What Wall Street published
$94
$90 – $100 · +19% against today's price
- 7 buy or overweight
- 7 hold
- 1 underweight or sell
The analysts’ consensus and their own ratings, not Orin’s. A target is a twelve-month opinion published by the firm that wrote it.
Against the companies it is compared to
| Company | Market cap | P/E | EV/EBITDA | Gross | Net | ROE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CBTCabot Corp. | $4B | 21.8× | 7.4× | 22.9% | 5.2% | 12% |
| AVNTAvient Corporation | $4B | 22.0× | 11.5× | 32.2% | 5.2% | 7% |
| CECelanese Corporation | $5B | — | 93.0× | 20.2% | -12.0% | -29% |
| FULH.B. Fuller Company | $3B | 14.7× | 9.1× | 32.5% | 5.3% | 9% |
| HWKNHawkins, Inc. | $3B | 31.9× | 16.2× | 22.3% | 7.3% | 15% |
| KNFKnife River Corporation | $3B | 20.9× | 10.4× | 17.9% | 4.2% | 9% |
| PRMPerimeter Solutions, Inc. | $5B | — | — | 48.5% | -44.9% | -30% |
The median is of the 4 peers listed above and nothing else — check it against the column. This company trades 1.7% above it. The peer set is the vendor’s, so a company can appear here that a person would not have chosen.
What it has traded at
What its sector has traded at
Two scales, drawn separately on purpose: a sector median and one company’s multiple are not the same number and putting them on one axis invites a comparison neither series supports.
Every estimate on one scale
The vertical rule is the current price. Ranges and point estimates are the backend’s, published as they were calculated; an arrow means the estimate sits beyond this scale, and its number is on the right.