Westlake Chemical (NYSE:WLK) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.19 EPS

Westlake Chemical (NYSE:WLK) announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.68 by $0.19, MarketWatch Earnings reports. The company had revenue of $1.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.96 billion. Westlake Chemical had a net margin of 5.14% and a return on equity of 4.74%. The firm’s revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.56 EPS.

Shares of Westlake Chemical stock traded down $0.81 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $86.64. 11,846 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 389,849. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 38.49 and a beta of 1.62. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $84.67 and a 200-day moving average price of $73.76. Westlake Chemical has a 1-year low of $28.99 and a 1-year high of $91.83. The company has a current ratio of 2.85, a quick ratio of 2.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58.

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 1st. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.25%. Westlake Chemical’s dividend payout ratio is presently 33.13%.

Several equities research analysts recently commented on WLK shares. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Westlake Chemical from $65.00 to $71.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Westlake Chemical from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $81.00 to $92.00 in a research report on Monday, December 21st. Scotiabank cut shares of Westlake Chemical from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on shares of Westlake Chemical from $90.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 13th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Westlake Chemical from $68.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 4th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. The company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $68.06.

Westlake Chemical Company Profile

Westlake Chemical Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets basic chemicals, vinyls, polymers, and building products worldwide. It operates through two segments, Olefins and Vinyls. The Olefins segment offers polyethylene, styrene monomers, and various ethylene co-products, as well as sells propylene, crude butadiene, pyrolysis gasoline, and hydrogen products.

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