Westlake Chemical (NYSE:WLK – Get Rating) was downgraded by StockNews.com from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report issued on Thursday.
Several other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Westlake Chemical from $110.00 to $129.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 18th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Westlake Chemical from $109.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 29th. Zacks Investment Research downgraded Westlake Chemical from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $101.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Friday, December 10th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Westlake Chemical from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $112.00 to $125.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Westlake Chemical from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Westlake Chemical presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $114.93.
WLK stock traded down $0.29 during trading on Thursday, hitting $106.19. The company had a trading volume of 767,419 shares, compared to its average volume of 647,325. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $101.01 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $95.93. The company has a current ratio of 3.39, a quick ratio of 2.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. Westlake Chemical has a fifty-two week low of $78.06 and a fifty-two week high of $111.49. The company has a market cap of $13.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.26, a P/E/G ratio of 0.20 and a beta of 1.38.
Westlake Chemical (NYSE:WLK – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 21st. The specialty chemicals company reported $4.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $4.53 by $0.45. Westlake Chemical had a return on equity of 20.75% and a net margin of 14.50%. The firm had revenue of $3.51 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.04 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.87 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 78.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Westlake Chemical will post 15.43 earnings per share for the current year.
In other Westlake Chemical news, CEO Albert Chao sold 30,787 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $91.75, for a total value of $2,824,707.25. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 73.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of WLK. National Bank of Canada FI acquired a new position in Westlake Chemical in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Spire Wealth Management acquired a new position in shares of Westlake Chemical during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Wahed Invest LLC acquired a new position in shares of Westlake Chemical during the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. Berman Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Westlake Chemical by 92.4% during the third quarter. Berman Capital Advisors LLC now owns 429 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 206 shares during the period. Finally, Koshinski Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Westlake Chemical during the third quarter worth about $41,000. 26.62% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
About Westlake Chemical (Get Rating)
Westlake Chemical Corp. manufactures and markets petrochemicals, polymers and fabricated building products. It operates through the following segments: Olefins and Vinyls. The Olefins segment manufactures ethylene, polyethylene and styrene and associated co-products at the manufacturing facility in Lake Charles and polyethylene at the Longview facility.
