Shares of Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK – Get Rating) fell 4.2% during trading on Wednesday after Bank of America lowered their price target on the stock from $167.00 to $147.00. Bank of America currently has a buy rating on the stock. Westlake traded as low as $109.43 and last traded at $109.53. 9,052 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 99% from the average session volume of 745,745 shares. The stock had previously closed at $114.37.

Several other equities analysts have also issued reports on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on Westlake from $135.00 to $148.00 in a research report on Monday, May 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Westlake from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $134.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Friday, June 3rd. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Westlake from $122.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 23rd. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Westlake from $140.00 to $153.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 4th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on Westlake from $125.00 to $131.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $137.50.

In other Westlake news, EVP Robert F. Buesinger sold 14,427 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.47, for a total value of $1,867,863.69. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 11,780 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,525,156.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Mark Steven Bender sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $122.44, for a total value of $489,760.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 107,614 shares of company stock worth $14,000,359 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 73.80% of the company’s stock.

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in WLK. Soroban Capital Partners LP bought a new stake in shares of Westlake during the 4th quarter worth approximately $115,498,000. Millennium Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Westlake by 90.2% during the 3rd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,291,436 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $117,701,000 after acquiring an additional 612,509 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Westlake by 82.9% during the 1st quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,297,300 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $160,087,000 after acquiring an additional 588,163 shares during the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Westlake by 1,832.7% during the 3rd quarter. Balyasny Asset Management LLC now owns 561,231 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $51,151,000 after acquiring an additional 532,193 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Westlake by 189.0% during the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 802,507 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $99,029,000 after acquiring an additional 524,828 shares during the last quarter.

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a current ratio of 2.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.17 and a beta of 1.18. The business has a fifty day moving average of $127.80 and a two-hundred day moving average of $113.36.

Westlake (NYSE:WLK – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 3rd. The specialty chemicals company reported $5.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.70 by $1.13. The business had revenue of $4.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.46 billion. Westlake had a return on equity of 30.67% and a net margin of 18.76%. The firm’s revenue was up 72.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.87 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Westlake Co. will post 22.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 23rd were issued a $0.2975 dividend. This represents a $1.19 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 20th. Westlake’s dividend payout ratio is 6.09%.

Westlake Company Profile (NYSE:WLK)

Westlake Corporation manufactures and supplies petrochemicals, polymers, and building products worldwide. It operates through two segments, Performance and Essential Materials; and Housing and Infrastructure Products. The Performance and Essential Materials segment manufactures and markets polyethylene, styrene monomer, ethylene co-products, PVC, VCM, ethylene dichloride chlor-alkali, and chlorinated derivative products.

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