Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK) have earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have issued a hold recommendation and nine have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $147.21.

A number of brokerages have recently commented on WLK. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Westlake from $171.00 to $165.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Citigroup upgraded Westlake from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $152.00 to $140.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on Westlake from $160.00 to $130.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. UBS Group upgraded Westlake from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $144.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on Westlake from $175.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Westlake news, Director David Tsung-Hung Chao sold 1,750 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,004,758.72. This represents a 18.36 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 74.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Westlake

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Westlake by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,877,973 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $444,610,000 after buying an additional 21,293 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Westlake by 21.0% in the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,313,847 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $379,933,000 after acquiring an additional 574,068 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Westlake by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,198,710 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $180,154,000 after acquiring an additional 9,838 shares in the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Westlake by 732.7% in the 4th quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 993,150 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $113,865,000 after purchasing an additional 873,888 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Westlake by 6.3% during the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 983,090 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $112,711,000 after purchasing an additional 58,093 shares in the last quarter. 28.40% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Westlake Stock Up 2.4 %

NYSE:WLK opened at $112.19 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $14.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 158.02, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a current ratio of 2.79, a quick ratio of 2.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $113.98 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $128.88. Westlake has a 1 year low of $104.74 and a 1 year high of $162.64.

Westlake (NYSE:WLK) last announced its earnings results on Monday, February 24th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.06 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.04 by ($0.98). Westlake had a return on equity of 6.93% and a net margin of 0.81%. The company had revenue of $2.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.01 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.72 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Westlake will post 6.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Westlake Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 19th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 4th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 4th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.87%. Westlake’s payout ratio is presently 295.77%.

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.