Is the business good?
How good a business is CBT?
Cabot Corporation earns 17% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so the business is worth more the bigger it gets.
17%
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 8.0 points above what the capital costs: growth creates value
- Operating margin
- 16%
Operating margin · Specialty Chemicals median 9.1% · 12 months to Q2 2026
- Cash conversion
- 1.52×
Cash conversion · 0.73× a year ago · every dollar of reported profit arrived as cash, and more
- Share count, year on year
- −4.0%
Share count, year on year · bought back, each share owns more of the company
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | 0.80% |
| FY2021 | 13% |
| FY2022 | 9.0% |
| FY2023 | 13% |
| FY2024 | 15% |
| FY2025 | 17% |
Details›
- Gross margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 25%
- Operating margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 16%
- Net margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 8.0%
- Free cash flow margin
- 12%
- R&D as % of revenue
- 1.6%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $3.58B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $432M
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $285M
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 17%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion from the cash flow statement.
Specialty Chemicals
Ranks #24 of 36 by Smart Score