Westlake Corporation (NYSE:WLK) Stock Has Average Price Target of $93.79 According to Brokerages

Shares of Westlake Corporation (NYSE:WLK) have earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the fifteen research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, ten have assigned a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $92.43.

WLK has been the topic of several research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $95.00 price target (up from $89.00) on shares of Westlake in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. KeyCorp began coverage on shares of Westlake in a report on Friday, September 11th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $92.00 price objective for the company. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Westlake from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 8th. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $96.00 target price on shares of Westlake in a report on Monday, July 6th. Finally, UBS Group set a $98.00 price target on shares of Westlake and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Westlake news, Chairman Albert Chao sold 38,873 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were 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 $51,610,406.40. This trade represents a 5.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Westlake

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Westlake during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $14,062,000. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in Westlake in the second quarter worth $1,117,000. Jupiter Topco LLC acquired a new stake in Westlake in the second quarter worth $19,544,000. Corient Private Wealth LLC lifted its stake in Westlake by 53.6% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 50,715 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $3,750,000 after buying an additional 17,689 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in shares of Westlake by 28.5% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 236,986 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $27,685,000 after acquiring an additional 52,551 shares during the period. 28.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Westlake Stock Up 1.2%

Shares of Westlake stock opened at $67.59 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.70, a current ratio of 2.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm has a market cap of $8.64 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.06 and a beta of 0.63. Westlake has a fifty-two week low of $56.33 and a fifty-two week high of $124.23. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $74.33 and a 200 day moving average price of $88.86.

Westlake (NYSE:WLK) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The specialty chemicals company reported $2.01 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $3.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.24 billion. Westlake had a positive return on equity of 0.93% and a negative net margin of 10.94%.Westlake’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($1.11) EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Westlake will post 3.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Westlake Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 10th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 25th were given a dividend of $0.5330 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 25th. This represents a $2.13 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.2%. This is a boost from Westlake’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. Westlake’s payout ratio is currently -22.23%.

Westlake Company Profile

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.