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Cabot (CBT) FY2025 results: revenue $3.7 billion, down 7.0% on the year

Cabot Corp. (CBT) reported revenue of $3.7 billion for fiscal 2025, the year ended 30 September 2025, down 7.0% on the year before. Net income was $331 million, down 12.9%, and diluted earnings per share $6.02. The figures are the company's own, from the 10-K it filed with the SEC on 24 November 2025.

Revenue
$3.7 billion
-7.0% on the year
FY2018FY2025
Operating margin
16.7%
15.4% a year earlier
FY2018FY2025
Net income
$331 million
-12.9% on the year
FY2018FY2025
Diluted EPS
$6.02
-10.4% on the year
FY2018FY2025

this yearthe year beforeHover a bar for its figure.

The year in brief

What management said about the year

Guidance figures: 2 new.

  • Fiscal 2025 Adjusted EPS rose 3%: Adjusted EPS for fiscal 2025 was $7.25, against $7.06 a year earlier. Diluted EPS was $6.02, against $6.72. Net sales were $3,713 million, against $3,994 million.
  • Fourth quarter Adjusted EPS fell 6%: Fourth quarter Adjusted EPS was $1.70, against $1.80 a year earlier. Diluted EPS was $0.79, against $2.43. Net sales were $899 million, against $1,001 million.
  • Segment EBIT moved in opposite directions: Reinforcement Materials EBIT fell 5% for the year while Performance Chemicals EBIT rose 18%. Total segment EBIT was $702 million, against $701 million.
  • Americas volumes fell on tire imports: Americas volumes fell as tire customers cut production amid higher tire imports from Asia. Asia Pacific volumes also declined. Fourth quarter EBIT fell $4 million, partly offset by cost management.
  • Fourth quarter EBIT fell on volume: Performance Chemicals fourth quarter EBIT fell $2 million, mainly on a 5% volume decrease, partly offset by lower costs.
Read the Q4 FY2025 earnings call summary

From this 10-K

Cabot is a specialty chemicals and performance materials company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Its principal products are reinforcing and specialty carbons, specialty compounds, conductive additives, carbon nanotubes, fumed metal oxides, inkjet colorants and aerogel. The business was founded in 1882 and incorporated in Delaware in 1960, and it has manufacturing facilities in the United States and over 20 other countries. It reports two segments, Reinforcement Materials and Performance Chemicals.

Cabot Corp., the 10-K for 2025

Cabot is a specialty chemicals and performance materials company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Its principal products are reinforcing and specialty carbons, specialty compounds, conductive additives, carbon nanotubes, fumed metal oxides, inkjet colorants and aerogel. The business was founded in 1882 and incorporated in Delaware in 1960, and it has manufacturing facilities in the United States and over 20 other countries. It reports two segments, Reinforcement Materials and Performance Chemicals.

Reinforcement Materials

Carbon black is a form of elemental carbon made from by-product feedstock in a controlled process that produces particles of varied size, structure and surface chemistry. Reinforcing carbons are the grades used in tires, to increase tread durability, reduce rolling resistance and improve traction, and in industrial products such as hoses, belts and molded goods. The feedstock is mostly by-product residual heavy oils from petroleum refining, coal tar distillation and ethylene production. The segment also makes E2C engineered elastomer composites, which combine reinforcing carbons and rubber through a patented process, at a plant in Port Dickson, Malaysia.

The majority of the market is replacement tires, which have historically been less cyclical because demand tracks miles driven. Sales to five major tire customers represent a material portion of the segment. In fiscal 2025 approximately sixty percent of reinforcing carbons volume was sold under supply arrangements, typically one year long, with price adjustments for changes in feedstock costs including natural gas. The company owns or controls reinforcing carbons plants in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, the Czech Republic, France, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands and the United States. In 2025 it completed an expansion at its Cilegon, Indonesia plant that added approximately 80,000 metric tons of reinforcing carbons capacity.

Performance Chemicals

This segment serves the automotive, construction, infrastructure, inkjet printing, electronics and consumer products sectors, and energy generation, transmission and storage. Specialty carbons add color, conductivity, UV protection and other properties, with plastics as the largest use. Specialty compounds are specialty carbons already mixed with polymers and additives for plastic resin producers and converters. Battery materials, meaning conductive carbons, carbon nanotubes and fumed alumina, go principally into lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage systems. Fumed silica is an ultra-fine, high-purity particle used as a thickening, reinforcing or anti-caking agent in adhesives, sealants, cosmetics, silicone elastomers and polishing slurries. Aerogel is a silica-based particle used in thermal insulation, including sprayable plasters and translucent skylight and wall systems.

China and energy

The company made its initial investment in China in 1988, and its model there is mainly to make and sell product in-country. In fiscal 2025 sales in China were approximately 25% of revenues. The manufacturing process also produces usable energy as a by-product, in the form of tailgas, and nine reinforcing carbons sites and four combined reinforcing and specialty carbons sites have energy centers.

People

As of September 30, 2025 the company had 4,064 employees.

From Cabot's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended 30 September 2025. The filing

Written from the 10-K filed 24 November 2025: read the full 10-K.

The four quarters: Q1 FY2025 · Q2 FY2025 · Q3 FY2025 · Q4 FY2025

Income statement (profit and loss)

$ millionFY2025FY2024FY2023On the yearLast 8 years
Revenue3,7133,9943,931-7.0%
Cost of revenue2,7733,0343,092-8.6%
Gross profit940960839-2.1%
Gross margin25.3%24.0%21.3%
Research and development59.063.057.0-6.3%
Selling, general and administrative260283253-8.1%
Operating income621614526+1.1%
Operating margin16.7%15.4%13.4%
Interest expense76.081.090.0-6.2%
Pre-tax income565529451+6.8%
Income tax196111-28.0+76.6%
Effective tax rate34.7%21.0%-6.2%
Net income331380445-12.9%
Net margin8.9%9.5%11.3%
Diluted EPS$6.02$6.72$7.73-10.4%
$ million except per share.
Read moreFree cash flow is operating cash flow less capital expenditure; the effective tax rate is income tax over pre-tax income; margins are the line over revenue. Gross profit is revenue less cost of revenue, and operating income is revenue less the company's own total costs, where the statement does not print those lines. Those four are arithmetic on the filed numbers; everything else is as filed. Money is in $ million as the company files it, or in $ billion by the switch above the tables; per share figures and share counts are as they are.

Cash flow

$ millionFY2025FY2024FY2023On the yearLast 8 years
Operating cash flow665692595-3.9%
Capital expenditure274241244+13.7%
Free cash flow391451351-13.3%
Free cash flow margin10.5%11.3%8.9%
Cash from investing-298-235-214
Cash from financing-336-415-403
Depreciation and amortisation154151144+2.0%
Share-based compensation24.025.020.0-4.0%
Buybacks16817298.0-2.3%
Dividends paid96.093.088.0+3.2%
Dividend per share$1.76$1.66$1.54+6.0%
Diluted shares, weighted54m56m56m-2.7%
Shares outstanding at period end53m54m55m-2.7%

Balance sheet

$ millionFY2025FY2024FY2023On the yearLast 8 years
Shareholders' equity1,5501,4251,264+8.8%
Non-controlling interest155165143-6.1%
Debt1,1301,1401,276-0.9%
Operating lease liabilities85.088.084.0-3.4%
Finance lease liabilities24.023.024.0+4.3%
Other liabilities871895813-2.7%
Total liabilities and equity3,8153,7363,604+2.1%
Fixed assets1,7111,5341,412+11.5%
Goodwill134133134+0.8%
Intangible assets55.053.060.0+3.8%
Cash and equivalents258223238+15.7%
Inventory504552585-8.7%
Other assets1,1531,2411,175-7.1%
Total assets3,8153,7363,604+2.1%

10-K for the year ended 30 September 2025, filed 24 November 2025: the filing.