Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK) have been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the thirteen analysts that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $165.92.

WLK has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group cut their target price on Westlake from $172.00 to $160.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Mizuho started coverage on shares of Westlake in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $170.00 target price on the stock. Bank of America upgraded shares of Westlake from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $151.00 to $159.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Westlake from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Barclays upgraded Westlake from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $162.00 to $180.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th.

Institutional Trading of Westlake

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of WLK. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Westlake by 2.6% in the first quarter. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd now owns 3,302 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $504,000 after purchasing an additional 84 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Westlake by 1.7% in the first quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,554 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $849,000 after acquiring an additional 91 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Westlake by 3.8% in the second quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 2,724 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $394,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its holdings in Westlake by 0.3% in the first quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 40,228 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $6,147,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares during the period. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its holdings in Westlake by 3.4% in the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 3,518 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $532,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares during the period. 28.40% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Westlake Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of WLK opened at $132.67 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $142.86 and its two-hundred day moving average is $147.48. The stock has a market cap of $17.06 billion, a PE ratio of 63.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a quick ratio of 1.94, a current ratio of 2.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. Westlake has a 52-week low of $113.38 and a 52-week high of $162.64.

Westlake (NYSE:WLK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The specialty chemicals company reported $2.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.99 by $0.41. Westlake had a net margin of 2.27% and a return on equity of 7.84%. The company had revenue of $3.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.22 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.31 EPS. Westlake’s revenue was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Westlake will post 7.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Westlake Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 5th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 20th were issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.58%. This is a boost from Westlake’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 20th. Westlake’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 100.96%.

About Westlake

Westlake Corporation engages in the manufacture and marketing of performance and essential materials, and housing and infrastructure products in the United States, Canada, Germany, China, Mexico, Brazil, France, Italy, Taiwan, and internationally. The company operates through two segments: Performance and Essential Materials and Housing and Infrastructure Products.