Westlake Corporation (NYSE:WLK) Receives $93.79 Average Price Target from Brokerages

Westlake Corporation (NYSE:WLK) has been given an average recommendation of “Hold” by the fifteen research firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, ten have issued a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $93.7857.

Several research firms recently commented on WLK. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Westlake in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Westlake from $110.00 to $89.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Westlake from $106.00 to $92.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Westlake from $95.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group set a $85.00 target price on shares of Westlake in a research report on Thursday, July 16th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Westlake news, Chairman Albert Chao sold 38,873 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.28, for a total value of $3,120,724.44. Following the transaction, the chairman owned 642,880 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $51,610,406.40. This represents a 5.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Westlake

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Westlake by 133.8% in the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 830 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $97,000 after buying an additional 475 shares during the last quarter. Nykredit A S bought a new position in Westlake in the second quarter worth approximately $69,000. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Westlake by 219.4% during the 4th quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 955 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $71,000 after acquiring an additional 656 shares during the last quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Westlake in the 2nd quarter worth $80,000. Finally, IFP Advisors Inc raised its holdings in Westlake by 58,450.0% in the 2nd quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 1,171 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $85,000 after purchasing an additional 1,169 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 28.40% of the company’s stock.

Westlake Price Performance

Shares of NYSE WLK opened at $67.88 on Friday. Westlake has a twelve month low of $56.33 and a twelve month high of $124.23. The firm has a market cap of $8.68 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.09 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a 50 day moving average of $75.07 and a 200 day moving average of $89.79. The company has a quick ratio of 1.70, a current ratio of 2.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Westlake (NYSE:WLK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 4th. The specialty chemicals company reported $2.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $3.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.24 billion. Westlake had a positive return on equity of 0.93% and a negative net margin of 10.94%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($1.11) EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Westlake will post 3.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Westlake Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 10th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 25th were issued a $0.533 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 25th. This is an increase from Westlake’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. This represents a $2.13 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.1%. Westlake’s dividend payout ratio is presently -22.23%.

About Westlake

Westlake Corporation is a global manufacturer of performance and essential materials headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company produces chemicals, polymers and building products used in construction, infrastructure, packaging, healthcare, consumer goods and other industrial applications.

Its Performance and Essential Materials businesses manufacture products such as chlor-alkali chemicals, vinyl chloride monomer, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene, epoxy resins and related specialty materials.