Creative Planning Increases Stake in Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK)

Creative Planning lifted its stake in shares of Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK) by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 5,737 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after buying an additional 250 shares during the period. Creative Planning’s holdings in Westlake were worth $831,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Dorsey Wright & Associates purchased a new position in shares of Westlake during the second quarter valued at about $3,185,000. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Westlake by 65.7% during the second quarter. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC now owns 35,285 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $5,110,000 after buying an additional 13,991 shares during the period. Scientech Research LLC bought a new stake in Westlake during the second quarter worth about $417,000. Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC bought a new stake in Westlake during the second quarter worth about $981,000. Finally, Millennium Management LLC boosted its stake in Westlake by 36.7% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 131,616 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $19,061,000 after acquiring an additional 35,331 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 28.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WLK has been the topic of several research reports. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of Westlake from $180.00 to $170.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Mizuho initiated coverage on shares of Westlake in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $170.00 price objective on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Westlake from $123.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Westlake from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Barclays raised shares of Westlake from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $162.00 to $180.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $167.17.

Westlake Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of Westlake stock opened at $144.20 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $18.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 72.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.17. The company’s 50 day moving average is $143.97 and its 200 day moving average is $148.62. Westlake Co. has a twelve month low of $112.77 and a twelve month high of $162.64. The company has a quick ratio of 1.94, a current ratio of 2.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41.

Westlake (NYSE:WLK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The specialty chemicals company reported $2.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.99 by $0.41. The company had revenue of $3.21 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.22 billion. Westlake had a net margin of 2.27% and a return on equity of 7.84%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.31 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Westlake Co. will post 7.18 EPS for the current year.

Westlake Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 5th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 20th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is an increase from Westlake’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 20th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.46%. Westlake’s dividend payout ratio is 105.53%.

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.