Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK) Shares Sold by Quantbot Technologies LP

Quantbot Technologies LP lessened its holdings in Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK) by 14.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 26,395 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 4,347 shares during the period. Quantbot Technologies LP’s holdings in Westlake were worth $3,026,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in 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 worth $379,933,000 after acquiring an additional 574,068 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Westlake by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,198,710 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $180,154,000 after acquiring an additional 9,838 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its stake in Westlake by 699.1% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 595,149 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $89,445,000 after acquiring an additional 520,669 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Westlake by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 552,646 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $82,837,000 after acquiring an additional 23,558 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP acquired a new position in Westlake during the 3rd quarter worth about $55,542,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 28.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on WLK shares. Citigroup raised Westlake from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $152.00 to $140.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. UBS Group upgraded Westlake from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $144.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, January 10th. Piper Sandler cut their price target on Westlake from $155.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on Westlake from $147.00 to $133.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Bank of America cut their price target on Westlake from $134.00 to $116.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Westlake has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $140.07.

Westlake Trading Down 0.5 %

WLK opened at $100.73 on Friday. Westlake Co. has a one year low of $99.18 and a one year high of $162.64. The company has a market cap of $12.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 141.87, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 2.04 and a current ratio of 2.79. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $112.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $124.26.

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

Westlake Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 19th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 4th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 4th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.08%. Westlake’s dividend payout ratio is presently 45.36%.

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.