Element Solutions (ESI) Competitors

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

Is CBT or ESI more profitable?

Cabot has a net margin of 11.51% compared to Cabot's net margin of 5.62%. Element Solutions' return on equity of 26.21% beat Cabot's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cabot	11.51%	26.21%	10.32%
Element Solutions	5.62%	13.96%	6.49%

Do analysts prefer CBT or ESI?

Cabot currently has a consensus price target of $91.80, indicating a potential downside of 6.05%. Element Solutions has a consensus price target of $29.40, indicating a potential upside of 9.15%. Given Cabot's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Element Solutions is more favorable than Cabot.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cabot	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.40
Element Solutions	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.67

Is CBT or ESI a better dividend stock?

Cabot pays an annual dividend of $1.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. Element Solutions pays an annual dividend of $0.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Cabot pays out 21.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Element Solutions pays out 59.3% 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. Cabot has raised its dividend for 13 consecutive years. Cabot is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Which has more risk and volatility, CBT or ESI?

Cabot has a beta of 1.2, suggesting that its share price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Element Solutions has a beta of 1.31, suggesting that its share price is 31% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media prefer CBT or ESI?

In the previous week, Element Solutions had 4 more articles in the media than Cabot. MarketBeat recorded 9 mentions for Element Solutions and 5 mentions for Cabot. Cabot's average media sentiment score of 0.67 beat Element Solutions' score of 0.08 indicating that Element Solutions is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Cabot	2 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Element Solutions	4 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has preferable valuation & earnings, CBT or ESI?

Cabot has higher revenue and earnings than Element Solutions. Cabot is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Element Solutions, 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
Cabot	$3.93B	1.37	$445M	$7.90	12.37
Element Solutions	$2.33B	2.79	$118.10M	$0.54	49.88

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

93.2% of Cabot shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.3% of Element Solutions shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.1% of Cabot shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.9% of Element Solutions shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in CBT or ESI?

Cabot received 342 more outperform votes than Element Solutions when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 61.98% of users gave Cabot an outperform vote while only 41.07% of users gave Element Solutions an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Cabot	Outperform Votes 388 61.98%	Underperform Votes 238 38.02%
Element Solutions	Outperform Votes 46 41.07%	Underperform Votes 66 58.93%

Summary

Cabot beats Element Solutions on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.