Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK) Shares Bought by Millennium Management LLC

Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK) by 36.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 131,616 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after purchasing an additional 35,331 shares during the quarter. Millennium Management LLC owned approximately 0.10% of Westlake worth $19,061,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in WLK. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Westlake during the first quarter valued at $1,273,000. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Westlake in the 1st quarter valued at about $3,254,000. Comerica Bank lifted its position in shares of Westlake by 17.9% in the first quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 24,490 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $3,742,000 after purchasing an additional 3,710 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in Westlake during the second quarter valued at approximately $544,000. Finally, Avantax Advisory Services Inc. acquired a new position in Westlake in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $207,000. 28.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Westlake from $123.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. StockNews.com downgraded Westlake from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Piper Sandler cut their price target on Westlake from $180.00 to $170.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Westlake from $162.00 to $168.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, June 14th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Westlake from $172.00 to $160.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Westlake has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $167.50.

Westlake Stock Performance

NYSE:WLK opened at $147.80 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.01 billion, a PE ratio of 74.27, a PEG ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a current ratio of 2.61, a quick ratio of 1.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. Westlake Co. has a 1 year low of $112.77 and a 1 year high of $162.64. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $143.95 and its 200 day simple moving average is $148.83.

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

Westlake Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 5th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 20th were paid a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 20th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.42%. This is a boost from Westlake’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Westlake’s payout ratio is presently 105.53%.

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.