Cabot Corp Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2025 Results

Fourth Quarter 2025 Diluted earnings per share (“EPS”) of $0.79 and Adjusted EPS of $1.70

Fiscal Year 2025 Diluted EPS of $6.02 and Adjusted EPS of $7.25

BOSTON, Nov. 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cabot Corporation (NYSE: CBT) today announced results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year 2025.

Fiscal Year Highlights

Fourth Quarter Highlights

Sean Keohane, Cabot President and Chief Executive Officer commented: "I am very pleased with another strong year of Adjusted EPS growth where we achieved $7.25, up 3% year over year, in a year with a challenging macroeconomic backdrop. This performance was driven by higher EBIT in our Performance Chemicals segment which increased 18% year over year, partially offset by EBIT in our Reinforcement Materials segment which declined 5%. We delivered a solid fourth quarter with Adjusted EPS of $1.70, consistent with our expectations and which represents a decrease of 6% over the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024. Our continued operational and commercial discipline along with strong execution allowed us to drive countermeasures to deliver earnings growth in a volatile economic environment.”

Keohane continued, “Strong operating performance in the year resulted in the company generating $665 million in operating cash flow, which enabled us to continue to deliver on our capital allocation priorities. In addition, we paid $96 million in dividends, including a 5% increase announced in May, and we repurchased $168 million of shares of our common stock. Our balance sheet remains strong despite the challenging macroeconomic backdrop, with a net debt to EBITDA ratio of 1.2 times, which allows us to invest to grow the company while returning capital to shareholders.”

Financial Detail

For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025, net income attributable to Cabot Corporation was $43 million ($0.79 per common share). Net income reflects an after-tax per share charge from certain items of $0.91. Adjusted EPS for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025 was $1.70 per share.

Segment Results

Reinforcement Materials – Fourth quarter fiscal 2025 EBIT in Reinforcement Materials decreased by $4 million compared to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024. The decrease in EBIT was largely driven by lower volumes in the Americas and Asia Pacific, partially offset by lower costs from overall cost management and optimization efforts. Volumes in the Americas were impacted by lower production levels at our tire customers given the higher levels of tire imports from Asia into the region.

Global and regional volume changes for Reinforcement Materials for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025 as compared to the same quarter of the prior year are set forth in the table below:

Performance Chemicals – Fourth quarter fiscal 2025 EBIT in Performance Chemicals decreased by $2 million compared to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024 primarily due to a 5% decrease in volumes, partially offset by lower costs. The lower volumes were primarily due to lower demand in Europe, particularly in construction-related applications, and the lower costs were primarily from overall cost management and optimization efforts.

Cash Performance – The Company ended the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025 with a cash balance of $258 million. During the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025, cash flows from operating activities were a source of $219 million. Capital expenditures for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025 were $64 million. Additional uses of cash during the fourth quarter included $25 million for the payment of dividends and $39 million for share repurchases.

Taxes – During the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025, the Company recorded a tax expense of $63 million with an effective tax rate of 55%. Our operating tax rate for fiscal 2025 was 27% and reflects a $36 million non-GAAP adjustment primarily related to an increase of the valuation allowance on U.S. deferred tax assets. Our operating tax rate for fiscal 2026 is expected to be in the range of 27% to 29%.

Outlook

Commenting on the outlook for the Company, Keohane said, “Looking ahead to fiscal 2026, we do not yet see signs of improvement in the external environment, particularly as it relates to regional demand trends in Reinforcement Materials due to the impact of elevated Asian tire imports into western regions. As a result, we expect Adjusted EPS to be in the range of $6.00 to $7.00 for the year. Our fiscal 2026 outlook reflects the uncertain macroeconomic and trade environment and competitive headwinds in Reinforcement Materials. In Performance Chemicals, we expect to see profit improvement overall, driven by attractive areas such as Battery Materials and targeted infrastructure, alternative energy, and consumer applications. We anticipate strong operating cash flow and discretionary free cash flow to support growth investments.”

Keohane concluded, “While market conditions remain challenging, we continue to execute on our foundation of commercial and operational excellence and we remain focused on managing costs, strengthening operations, and positioning the company for long-term growth. Backed by a strong balance sheet and our demonstrated ability to generate solid cash flow, we remain well positioned to continue to return capital to shareholders and fund strategic growth projects that we expect to deliver value to shareholders.”

Earnings Call

The Company will host a conference call with industry analysts at 8:00 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, November 4, 2025. The call can be accessed through Cabot’s investor relations website at http://investor.cabot-corp.com

About Cabot Corporation

Cabot Corporation (NYSE: CBT) is a global specialty chemicals and performance materials company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The company is a leading provider of reinforcing carbons, specialty carbons, battery materials, engineered elastomer composites, inkjet colorants, masterbatches and conductive compounds, fumed metal oxides and aerogel. For more information on Cabot, please visit the company’s website at cabotcorp.com. The Company regularly posts important information on its website and encourages investors and potential investors to consult the Cabot website regularly.

Forward-Looking Statements – This earnings release contains forward-looking statements. All statements that address expectations or projections about the future, including with respect to our expectations for our performance in fiscal year 2026, including our expectations for Adjusted EPS for fiscal 2026, our expectations for capital allocation and operating cash flow and discretionary free cash flow for fiscal 2026, our expected operating tax rate for fiscal 2026, and our assumptions underlying those expectations are forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties, potentially inaccurate assumptions, and other factors, some of which are beyond our control and difficult to predict. If known or unknown risks materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove inaccurate, our actual results could differ materially from past results and from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, industry capacity utilization and competition from other specialty chemical companies; safety, health and environmental requirements and related constraints imposed on our business; regulatory and financial risks related to climate change developments; volatility in the price and availability of energy and raw materials, including with respect to the Russian invasion of Ukraine; a significant adverse change in a customer relationship or the failure of a customer to perform its obligations under agreements with us; failure to achieve growth expectations from new products, applications and technology developments; failure to realize benefits from acquisitions, alliances, or joint ventures or achieve our portfolio management objectives; unanticipated delays in, or increased cost of site development projects; negative or uncertain worldwide or regional economic conditions and market opportunities, including from trade relations, global health matters or geo-political conflicts; litigation or legal proceedings; interest rates, tax rates, currency exchange controls, tariffs and fluctuations in foreign currency rates; and the accuracy of the assumptions we used in establishing reserves for our share of liability for respirator claims. These factors are discussed more fully in the reports we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), particularly under the heading “Risk Factors” in our annual report on Form 10-K for our fiscal year ended September 30, 2024, which are filed with the SEC at www.sec.gov. We assume no obligation to provide revisions to any forward-looking statements should circumstances change, except as otherwise required by securities and other applicable laws.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

To supplement Cabot’s consolidated financial statements presented on a generally accepted accounting principle (“GAAP”) basis, the preceding discussion of our results and the accompanying financial tables report Adjusted EPS, Total Segment EBIT, Total Segment EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, our operating tax rate, Free Cash Flow and Discretionary Free Cash Flow, all of which are non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP financial measures are not computed in accordance with, or as an alternative to, GAAP, and the definitions of these measures may not be comparable to those used by other companies. Reconciliations of Adjusted EPS to net income (loss) per share attributable to Cabot Corporation, the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure, Total Segment EBIT, Total Segment EBITDA, and Adjusted EBITDA to Income (loss) from operations before income taxes and equity in earnings of affiliated companies, the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure of each such non-GAAP measure, operating tax rate to effective tax rate, the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure and Free Cash Flow and Discretionary Free Cash Flow to Cash flow provided by (used in) operating activities, the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure, are provided in the tables titled “Cabot Corporation Certain Items and Reconciliation of Adjusted EPS and Operating Tax Rate” and “Cabot Corporation Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures.”

Management believes these non-GAAP measures provide investors with greater transparency to the information used by Cabot management in its financial and operational decision-making, allow investors to see Cabot’s results through the eyes of management, and better enable Cabot’s investors to understand Cabot’s operating performance and financial condition.

Adjusted EPS. In calculating Adjusted EPS, we exclude from our net income (loss) attributable to Cabot Corporation items of expense and income that management does not consider representative of the Company’s business operations. Accordingly, reporting earnings on an adjusted basis supplements the GAAP measure of performance and provides additional information related to the underlying performance of the business. For example, certain of the items we exclude are items that we are required by GAAP to recognize in one period that relate to activities extending over several periods or relate to single events that management considers to be unusual and infrequent, although not necessarily non-recurring. We refer to these items as “certain items.” Management believes excluding these items facilitates operating performance comparisons from period to period by eliminating differences caused by the existence and timing of certain expense and income items that would not otherwise be apparent on a GAAP basis and evaluates the Company’s operating performance without the impact of these costs or benefits. Management also uses Adjusted EPS as a key measure in evaluating management performance for incentive compensation purposes.

The items of income and expense that we exclude from our calculations of Adjusted EPS but that are included in our GAAP net income (loss) per share, as applicable in a particular reporting period, include, but are not limited to, the following:

Cabot does not provide an expected GAAP EPS range or reconciliation of the Adjusted EPS range with an expected GAAP EPS range because, without unreasonable effort, we are unable to predict with reasonable certainty the matters we would allocate to “certain items,” including unusual gains and losses, costs associated with future restructurings, acquisition-related expenses and litigation outcomes. These items are uncertain, depend on various factors, and could have a material impact on GAAP EPS in future periods.

Total Segment EBIT. Total Segment EBIT reflects the sum of EBIT from our two reportable segments. In calculating Total Segment EBIT we exclude from our Income (loss) from operations before income taxes and equity in earnings of affiliated companies, certain items and items that, because they are not controlled by the business segments and primarily benefit corporate objectives, are not allocated to our business segments, such as interest expense and other corporate costs, which include unallocated corporate overhead expenses such as certain corporate salaries and headquarter expenses, plus costs related to corporate projects and initiatives.

Total Segment EBITDA. Total Segment EBITDA is equal to Total Segment EBIT (as defined above), but further adjusted for depreciation and amortization.

Adjusted EBITDA. Adjusted EBITDA reflects Total Segment EBITDA and is further adjusted for unallocated corporate costs, which include unallocated corporate overhead expenses such as certain corporate salaries and headquarter expenses, plus costs related to corporate projects and initiatives.

Free Cash Flow. To calculate “Free Cash Flow” we deduct Additions to property, plant and equipment from cash flow provided by (used in) operating activities.

Discretionary Free Cash Flow. To calculate “Discretionary Free Cash Flow” we deduct sustaining and compliance capital expenditures and changes in Net Working Capital from cash flow provided by (used in) operating activities.

Operating Tax Rate. Our “operating tax rate” is calculated based upon management's forecast of the annual operating tax rate for the fiscal year applied to adjusted pre-tax earnings. The operating tax rate excludes income tax (expense) benefit on certain items, discrete tax items and, on a quarterly basis the timing of losses in certain jurisdictions. The income tax (expense) benefit on certain items is determined using the applicable rates in the taxing jurisdictions in which the certain items occurred and includes both current and deferred income tax (expense) benefit based on the nature of the certain items. Discrete tax items include, but are not limited to, changes in valuation allowance, uncertain tax positions, and other tax items, such as the tax impact of legislative changes and tax accruals on historic earnings due to changes in indefinite reinvestment assertions. Management believes that this non-GAAP financial measure is useful supplemental information because it helps our investors compare our tax rate year to year on a consistent basis and to understand what our tax rate on current operations would be without the impact of these items.

Cabot does not provide a forward-looking reconciliation of the operating tax rate range with an effective tax rate range because, without unreasonable effort, we are unable to predict with reasonable certainty the matters we would allocate to “certain items,” including unusual gains and losses, costs associated with future restructurings, acquisition-related expenses and litigation outcomes. These items are uncertain, depend on various factors, and could have a material impact on the effective tax rate in future periods.

Explanation of Terms Used

Product Mix. The term “product mix” refers to the mix of types and grade of products sold or the mix of geographic regions where products are sold, and the positive or negative impact this has on the revenue or profitability of the business or segment.

Net Working Capital. The term “net working capital” includes accounts receivable, inventory and accounts payable and accrued expenses.