Peterson Wealth Services Purchases 484 Shares of Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK)

Peterson Wealth Services grew its position in shares of Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK) by 8.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 6,400 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after buying an additional 484 shares during the quarter. Peterson Wealth Services’ holdings in Westlake were worth $734,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its position in Westlake by 134.4% during the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 7,612 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,102,000 after purchasing an additional 4,364 shares during the last quarter. Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Westlake during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,918,000. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its holdings in shares of Westlake by 10.2% in the 3rd quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 73,666 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $11,071,000 after acquiring an additional 6,838 shares during the last quarter. nVerses Capital LLC purchased a new position in Westlake in the third quarter worth about $75,000. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd increased its stake in Westlake by 96.0% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 4,503 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $677,000 after acquiring an additional 2,205 shares during the last quarter. 28.40% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WLK has been the subject of several analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on Westlake from $170.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of Westlake from $155.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Citigroup raised shares of Westlake from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $152.00 to $140.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Westlake from $171.00 to $165.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Westlake from $155.00 to $130.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $155.79.

Westlake Trading Down 0.4 %

WLK opened at $111.06 on Tuesday. Westlake Co. has a 52 week low of $108.56 and a 52 week high of $162.64. The company has a market capitalization of $14.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 156.43, a PEG ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 1.17. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $116.07 and its two-hundred day moving average is $131.24. The company has a quick ratio of 2.04, a current ratio of 2.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41.

Westlake Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 26th were issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 26th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.89%. Westlake’s payout ratio is currently 295.77%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Westlake news, Director David Tsung-Hung Chao sold 1,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.08, for a total transaction of $225,890.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 7,784 shares in the company, valued at $1,004,758.72. This represents a 18.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 74.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.