Invesco Ltd. Sells 13,636 Shares of Westlake Corp. $WLK

Invesco Ltd. lowered its stake in Westlake Corp. (NYSE:WLK) by 9.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 134,380 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 13,636 shares during the quarter. Invesco Ltd. owned about 0.10% of Westlake worth $13,442,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Westlake by 17.7% in the first quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,900,025 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $390,120,000 after purchasing an additional 586,178 shares in the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted 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 in the last quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC lifted 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 in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Westlake by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 934,122 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $107,092,000 after purchasing an additional 43,544 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Westlake by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 882,474 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $101,175,000 after purchasing an additional 47,732 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 28.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on WLK shares. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Westlake from $101.00 to $99.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Westlake from $85.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Westlake from $135.00 to $100.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on shares of Westlake from $130.00 to $95.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on shares of Westlake from $88.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Westlake presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $92.29.

Westlake Stock Performance

NYSE WLK opened at $90.4550 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.47, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $80.73 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $89.23. Westlake Corp. has a 1 year low of $68.55 and a 1 year high of $153.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.60 billion, a P/E ratio of -170.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 363.77 and a beta of 0.92.

Westlake (NYSE:WLK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The specialty chemicals company reported ($0.09) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.06 by ($0.15). The company had revenue of $2.95 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3 billion. Westlake had a negative net margin of 0.57% and a positive return on equity of 1.26%. Westlake’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.40 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Westlake Corp. will post 6.48 EPS for the current year.

Westlake Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 4th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 19th will be given a $0.53 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 19th. This is a boost from Westlake’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.47. This represents a $2.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. Westlake’s payout ratio is currently -400.00%.

Westlake Profile

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.