Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. Increases Stock Position in Westlake Corporation $WLK

Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. boosted its position in shares of Westlake Corporation (NYSE:WLK) by 20.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 235,919 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after acquiring an additional 39,876 shares during the period. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V.’s holdings in Westlake were worth $17,444,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Westlake by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 4,108 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $304,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its stake in shares of Westlake by 0.6% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 28,134 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $2,136,000 after acquiring an additional 165 shares in the last quarter. Comerica Bank grew its stake in shares of Westlake by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 28,483 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $2,106,000 after acquiring an additional 221 shares in the last quarter. Journey Advisory Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Westlake by 0.5% during the third quarter. Journey Advisory Group LLC now owns 45,072 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $3,473,000 after acquiring an additional 230 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp grew its stake in shares of Westlake by 71.3% during the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 562 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 234 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 28.40% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on WLK. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their target price on Westlake from $145.00 to $130.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Westlake in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Truist Financial raised their target price on Westlake from $117.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 26th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Westlake from $125.00 to $110.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upgraded Westlake from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $108.00 to $127.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $107.36.

Westlake Stock Performance

Shares of Westlake stock opened at $88.63 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $11.35 billion, a PE ratio of -6.98 and a beta of 0.58. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $101.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $93.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 1.56 and a current ratio of 2.17. Westlake Corporation has a 1 year low of $56.33 and a 1 year high of $124.23.

Westlake (NYSE:WLK) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The specialty chemicals company reported ($0.77) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.10) by ($0.67). The company had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.79 billion. Westlake had a negative net margin of 14.91% and a negative return on equity of 1.89%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted ($0.31) EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Westlake Corporation will post 3.81 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Westlake Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 11th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 27th were paid a $0.53 dividend. This represents a $2.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 27th. Westlake’s dividend payout ratio is -16.69%.

Westlake Company Profile

Westlake Corp. is a global manufacturer of petrochemicals, polymers and building products, serving customers across industrial and residential markets. The company’s core operations encompass the production of vinyls—primarily polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and its key feedstock vinyl chloride monomer (VCM)—as well as chlor-alkali products including caustic soda and chlorine. In addition, Westlake produces ethylene, propylene and specialty elastomers, along with construction-related materials such as vinyl siding, trim, windows and roofing systems.

Operating a network of vertically integrated plants and distribution centers, Westlake serves markets in North America, Europe and Asia.