Westlake (NYSE:WLK) Hits New 12-Month Low on Analyst Downgrade

Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK)’s share price reached a new 52-week low on Wednesday after BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on the stock from $103.00 to $94.00. BMO Capital Markets currently has a market perform rating on the stock. Westlake traded as low as $76.17 and last traded at $76.31, with a volume of 1858652 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $79.94.

WLK has been the subject of several other reports. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Westlake from $135.00 to $100.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Westlake from $110.00 to $82.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Westlake from $144.00 to $127.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Westlake from $122.00 to $98.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Westlake from $130.00 to $116.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $103.54.

Institutional Trading of Westlake

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WLK. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Westlake by 17.7% in the first quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,900,025 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $390,120,000 after buying an additional 586,178 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Westlake by 0.6% in 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. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Westlake by 10.9% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,041,190 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $104,150,000 after buying an additional 102,268 shares during the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Westlake by 732.7% in the fourth quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 993,150 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $113,865,000 after buying an additional 873,888 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Westlake by 6.3% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 983,090 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $112,711,000 after buying an additional 58,093 shares during the last quarter. 28.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Westlake Price Performance

The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $90.81 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $108.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 2.79 and a quick ratio of 2.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 103.83, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.03.

Westlake (NYSE:WLK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 2nd. The specialty chemicals company reported ($0.31) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by ($1.01). Westlake had a return on equity of 6.93% and a net margin of 0.81%. The firm had revenue of $2.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.97 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.34 earnings per share. Westlake’s quarterly revenue was down 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Westlake Co. will post 6.48 EPS for the current year.

Westlake Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 5th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 20th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.85%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 20th. Westlake’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 70.47%.

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.