Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC Makes New $1.92 Million Investment in Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK)

Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC purchased a new position in Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 12,762 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,918,000.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in Westlake in the 1st quarter worth $43,000. Quest Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Westlake by 8,400.0% during the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 340 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $49,000 after purchasing an additional 336 shares during the last quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new position in shares of Westlake during the 2nd quarter valued at about $66,000. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Westlake by 66.7% during the 1st quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 500 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $76,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Westlake during the 2nd quarter valued at about $101,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 28.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WLK has been the subject of several research reports. Barclays raised shares of Westlake from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $162.00 to $180.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Westlake from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of Westlake from $180.00 to $170.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 5th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Westlake from $167.00 to $171.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Westlake from $123.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $167.17.

Westlake Stock Performance

Westlake stock opened at $144.20 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 2.61 and a quick ratio of 1.94. Westlake Co. has a 1-year low of $112.77 and a 1-year high of $162.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 69.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.17. The company’s 50-day moving average is $143.97 and its 200 day moving average is $148.58.

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

Westlake Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 5th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 20th were given a $0.525 dividend. This is a positive change from Westlake’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.46%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 20th. Westlake’s dividend payout ratio is 100.96%.

About Westlake

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.