Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK) Shares Acquired by AustralianSuper Pty Ltd

AustralianSuper Pty Ltd raised its position in shares of Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK) by 16.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,726 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,545 shares during the period. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd’s holdings in Westlake were worth $1,612,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC bought a new stake in shares of Westlake during the first quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Quest Partners LLC raised its stake in Westlake by 8,400.0% during the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 340 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $49,000 after acquiring an additional 336 shares in the last quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new stake in Westlake during the 2nd quarter valued at $66,000. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd boosted its position in Westlake by 66.7% during the 1st quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 500 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $76,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the period. Finally, nVerses Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Westlake in the third quarter worth $75,000. Institutional investors own 28.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on WLK shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Westlake from $123.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Westlake from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Barclays raised shares of Westlake from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $162.00 to $180.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of Westlake from $174.00 to $170.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Westlake from $180.00 to $170.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $165.92.

Westlake Stock Performance

Shares of WLK stock opened at $131.94 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $16.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 63.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 1.17. Westlake Co. has a 1-year low of $113.95 and a 1-year high of $162.64. The company has a current ratio of 2.61, a quick ratio of 1.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $142.12 and its 200-day simple moving average is $146.91.

Westlake (NYSE:WLK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The specialty chemicals company reported $2.40 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.99 by $0.41. Westlake had a net margin of 2.27% and a return on equity of 7.84%. The business had revenue of $3.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.22 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.31 EPS. Westlake’s revenue was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Westlake Co. will post 7.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Westlake Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 5th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 20th were given a $0.525 dividend. This is a positive change from Westlake’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 20th. Westlake’s dividend payout ratio is presently 100.96%.

Westlake Company Profile

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.