Head-To-Head Contrast: PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG) & Westlake Chemical Partners (NYSE:WLKP)

Westlake Chemical Partners (NYSE:WLKP) and PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG) are both basic materials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings and institutional ownership.

Volatility and Risk

Westlake Chemical Partners has a beta of 0.59, indicating that its stock price is 41% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, PPG Industries has a beta of 1.16, indicating that its stock price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Westlake Chemical Partners and PPG Industries’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Westlake Chemical Partners	4.34%	6.00%	3.75%
PPG Industries	9.93%	22.67%	7.90%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

78.3% of Westlake Chemical Partners shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.9% of PPG Industries shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.1% of Westlake Chemical Partners shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of PPG Industries shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Westlake Chemical Partners pays an annual dividend of $1.89 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.9%. PPG Industries pays an annual dividend of $2.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Westlake Chemical Partners pays out 135.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. PPG Industries pays out 40.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. PPG Industries has increased its dividend for 54 consecutive years.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Westlake Chemical Partners and PPG Industries”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Westlake Chemical Partners	$1.14 billion	0.66	$62.39 million	$1.40	15.23
PPG Industries	$15.88 billion	1.86	$1.58 billion	$6.94	18.91

PPG Industries has higher revenue and earnings than Westlake Chemical Partners. Westlake Chemical Partners is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than PPG Industries, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Westlake Chemical Partners and PPG Industries, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Westlake Chemical Partners	0	2	0	0	2.00
PPG Industries	0	11	7	1	2.47

PPG Industries has a consensus price target of $124.79, indicating a potential downside of 4.93%. Given PPG Industries’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe PPG Industries is more favorable than Westlake Chemical Partners.

Summary

PPG Industries beats Westlake Chemical Partners on 16 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Westlake Chemical Partners

Westlake Chemical Partners LP acquires, develops, and operates ethylene production facilities and related assets in the United States. The company’s ethylene production facilities primarily convert ethane into ethylene. It also sells ethylene co-products, such as propylene, crude butadiene, pyrolysis gasoline, and hydrogen directly to third parties on either a spot or contract basis. Westlake Chemical Partners GP LLC serves as the general partner of the company. Westlake Chemical Partners LP was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

About PPG Industries

PPG Industries, Inc. manufactures and distributes paints, coatings, and specialty materials in the United States, Canada, the Asia Pacific, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. It operates through two segments, Performance Coatings and Industrial Coatings. The Performance Coatings segment offers coatings, solvents, adhesives, sealants, sundries, and software for automotive and commercial transport/fleet repair and refurbishing, light industrial coatings, and specialty coatings for signs; wood stains; paints, thermoplastics, pavement marking products, and other advanced technologies for pavement marking for government, commercial infrastructure, painting, and maintenance contractors; and coatings, sealants, transparencies, transparent armor, adhesives, engineered materials, and packaging and chemical management services for commercial, military, regional jet, and general aviation aircraft. The Industrial Coatings segment offers coatings, adhesives and sealants, and metal pretreatments, as well as services and coatings applications for appliances, agricultural and construction equipment, consumer electronics, automotive parts and accessories, building products, kitchenware, and transportation vehicles and other finished products; and on-site coatings services. It also provides coatings for metal cans, closures, plastic and aluminum tubes for food, beverage and personal care, promotional, and specialty packaging; amorphous precipitated silica for tire, battery separator, and other end-uses; TESLIN substrates for labels, e-passports, drivers' licenses, breathable membranes, and loyalty and identification cards; and organic light emitting diode materials, displays and lighting lens materials, optical lenses, color-change products, and photochromic dyes. PPG Industries, Inc. was incorporated in 1883 and is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.