Westlake Co. to Post Q3 2024 Earnings of $2.50 Per Share, KeyCorp Forecasts (NYSE:WLK)

Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK) – Analysts at KeyCorp dropped their Q3 2024 EPS estimates for shares of Westlake in a report issued on Thursday, November 2nd. KeyCorp analyst A. Yefremov now anticipates that the specialty chemicals company will post earnings of $2.50 per share for the quarter, down from their previous estimate of $2.75. KeyCorp has a “Sector Weight” rating on the stock. The consensus estimate for Westlake’s current full-year earnings is $8.46 per share.

Westlake (NYSE:WLK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The specialty chemicals company reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.83 by ($0.52). The firm had revenue of $3.25 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.50 billion. Westlake had a return on equity of 11.16% and a net margin of 9.28%. The business’s revenue was down 27.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $6.60 EPS.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on WLK. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Westlake from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $120.00 to $123.00 in a report on Tuesday, August 8th. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Westlake in a report on Thursday, October 5th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of Westlake from $150.00 to $144.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 11th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Westlake from $139.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $110.00 target price on shares of Westlake in a research note on Wednesday, July 19th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $128.29.

Westlake Trading Up 2.2 %

Shares of NYSE WLK opened at $123.65 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $123.36 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $121.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 2.17 and a current ratio of 2.54. Westlake has a 52-week low of $93.75 and a 52-week high of $138.39. The stock has a market cap of $15.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.22 and a beta of 1.28.

Westlake Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 12th. Investors of record on Friday, August 25th were given a $0.357 dividend. This represents a $1.43 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.15%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 24th. Westlake’s dividend payout ratio is currently 21.39%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Westlake news, Director David Tsung-Hung Chao sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.00, for a total transaction of $131,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,148 shares in the company, valued at $1,329,388. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 74.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Westlake

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of WLK. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Westlake by 17.5% during the 1st quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,224,641 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $489,974,000 after purchasing an additional 629,978 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. boosted its stake in Westlake by 6.6% during the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 3,803,250 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $454,374,000 after purchasing an additional 236,332 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Westlake by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,405,575 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $406,864,000 after buying an additional 84,846 shares during the last quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Westlake by 5.4% in the 1st quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 2,061,900 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $239,139,000 after buying an additional 105,650 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Westlake by 17.3% in the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,187,394 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $137,714,000 after purchasing an additional 174,908 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 28.40% of the company’s stock.

About Westlake

Westlake Corporation manufactures and markets performance and essential materials, and housing and infrastructure products in the United States, Canada, Germany, China, Italy, Taiwan, and internationally. The Performance and Essential Materials segment offers polyethylene, styrene monomer, ethylene co-products, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), vinyl chloride monomer, ethylene dichloride chlor-alkali, chlorinated derivative products, and epoxy resins.