Cabot (CBT) Competitors

Westlake (NYSE:WLK) and Cabot (NYSE:CBT) are both mid-cap basic materials companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their media sentiment, earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, community ranking, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk and dividends.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in WLK or CBT?

Westlake received 85 more outperform votes than Cabot when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 61.41% of users gave Cabot an outperform vote while only 56.70% of users gave Westlake an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Westlake	Outperform Votes 478 56.70%	Underperform Votes 365 43.30%
Cabot	Outperform Votes 393 61.41%	Underperform Votes 247 38.59%

Do analysts prefer WLK or CBT?

Westlake presently has a consensus target price of $103.54, indicating a potential upside of 40.45%. Cabot has a consensus target price of $92.67, indicating a potential upside of 26.14%. Given Westlake's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Westlake is more favorable than Cabot.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Westlake	0 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.54
Cabot	1 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00

Which has preferable earnings & valuation, WLK or CBT?

Westlake has higher revenue and earnings than Cabot. Cabot is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Westlake, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Westlake	$12.01B	0.79	$479M	$2.98	24.74
Cabot	$3.91B	1.01	$380M	$7.73	9.50

Is WLK or CBT more profitable?

Cabot has a net margin of 10.60% compared to Westlake's net margin of 0.81%. Cabot's return on equity of 26.79% beat Westlake's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Westlake	0.81%	6.93%	3.61%
Cabot	10.60%	26.79%	11.24%

Do insiders & institutionals hold more shares of WLK or CBT?

28.4% of Westlake shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.2% of Cabot shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.3% of Westlake shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 3.0% of Cabot shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Is WLK or CBT a better dividend stock?

Westlake pays an annual dividend of $2.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Cabot pays an annual dividend of $1.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Westlake pays out 70.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Cabot pays out 23.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Westlake has raised its dividend for 21 consecutive years and Cabot has raised its dividend for 14 consecutive years. Westlake is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Which has more risk & volatility, WLK or CBT?

Westlake has a beta of 1.03, indicating that its stock price is 3% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cabot has a beta of 0.91, indicating that its stock price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media refer more to WLK or CBT?

In the previous week, Westlake had 11 more articles in the media than Cabot. MarketBeat recorded 21 mentions for Westlake and 10 mentions for Cabot. Cabot's average media sentiment score of 1.16 beat Westlake's score of 0.73 indicating that Cabot is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Westlake	10 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Cabot	8 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Westlake beats Cabot on 11 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.