BMO Capital Markets Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Westlake (NYSE:WLK) Stock Price

Westlake (NYSE:WLK) had its price target dropped by research analysts at BMO Capital Markets from $157.00 to $132.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “market perform” rating on the specialty chemicals company’s stock. BMO Capital Markets’ price objective points to a potential upside of 19.60% from the stock’s current price.

WLK has been the topic of a number of other reports. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of Westlake from $155.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Truist Financial cut their price target on shares of Westlake from $168.00 to $166.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Citigroup raised Westlake from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $152.00 to $140.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on Westlake from $170.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Westlake from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $144.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, January 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $140.07.

Westlake Trading Down 1.7 %

WLK opened at $110.37 on Wednesday. Westlake has a fifty-two week low of $104.74 and a fifty-two week high of $162.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.21 billion, a PE ratio of 155.45, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.17. 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 company’s 50-day moving average is $113.86 and its 200 day moving average is $128.64.

Westlake (NYSE:WLK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 24th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.06 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.04 by ($0.98). The company had revenue of $2.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.01 billion. Westlake had a return on equity of 6.93% and a net margin of 0.81%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.72 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Westlake will post 6.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Westlake

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WLK. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Westlake by 0.6% during 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 in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Westlake by 21.0% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,313,847 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $379,933,000 after acquiring an additional 574,068 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Westlake by 0.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,198,710 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $180,154,000 after purchasing an additional 9,838 shares in the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its position 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 purchasing an additional 873,888 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC increased its position 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 purchasing an additional 58,093 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 28.40% of the company’s stock.

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.