Cabot (CBT) Competitors

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

Do analysts prefer CBT or WLK?

Cabot presently has a consensus price target of $105.00, suggesting a potential upside of 4.91%. Westlake has a consensus price target of $162.17, suggesting a potential upside of 37.97%. Given Westlake's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Westlake is more favorable than Cabot.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cabot	1 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
Westlake	1 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	6 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.38

Is CBT or WLK a better dividend stock?

Cabot pays an annual dividend of $1.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Westlake pays an annual dividend of $2.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. Cabot pays out 25.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Westlake pays out 295.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Cabot has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years and Westlake has increased its dividend for 21 consecutive years. Westlake is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer CBT or WLK?

Westlake received 71 more outperform votes than Cabot when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 61.75% of users gave Cabot an outperform vote while only 57.14% of users gave Westlake an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Cabot	Outperform Votes 389 61.75%	Underperform Votes 241 38.25%
Westlake	Outperform Votes 460 57.14%	Underperform Votes 345 42.86%

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, CBT or WLK?

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
Cabot	$3.99B	1.36	$380M	$6.74	14.85
Westlake	$12.55B	1.21	$479M	$0.71	165.55

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

93.2% of Cabot shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 28.4% of Westlake shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.1% of Cabot shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 74.1% of Westlake shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media refer more to CBT or WLK?

In the previous week, Cabot had 2 more articles in the media than Westlake. MarketBeat recorded 11 mentions for Cabot and 9 mentions for Westlake. Cabot's average media sentiment score of 1.33 beat Westlake's score of 0.38 indicating that Cabot is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Cabot	9 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Westlake	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Is CBT or WLK more profitable?

Cabot has a net margin of 9.51% compared to Westlake's net margin of 0.81%. Cabot's return on equity of 26.60% beat Westlake's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cabot	9.51%	26.60%	10.99%
Westlake	0.81%	6.93%	3.61%

Which has more risk & volatility, CBT or WLK?

Cabot has a beta of 1.18, meaning that its share price is 18% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Westlake has a beta of 1.16, meaning that its share price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

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