Dark Forest Capital Management LP Invests $531,000 in Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK)

Dark Forest Capital Management LP purchased a new position in Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 4,628 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock, valued at approximately $531,000.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its position in Westlake by 81.6% in the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 4,805 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $551,000 after buying an additional 2,159 shares in the last quarter. Transce3nd LLC bought a new position in shares of Westlake in the fourth quarter worth approximately $505,000. MetLife Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Westlake by 9.2% during the 4th quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 18,865 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $2,163,000 after purchasing an additional 1,584 shares during the period. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S purchased a new position in shares of Westlake during the 4th quarter valued at $71,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Westlake by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 934,122 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $107,092,000 after buying an additional 43,544 shares during the period. 28.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on WLK shares. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $105.00 price objective (down previously from $120.00) on shares of Westlake in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Westlake from $130.00 to $122.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. StockNews.com raised shares of Westlake from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, April 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Westlake from an "underweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and cut their price objective for the company from $135.00 to $110.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Westlake from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and cut their price target for the company from $116.00 to $75.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $122.25.

Westlake Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE WLK traded up $0.36 on Tuesday, reaching $93.42. 427,603 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 567,593. The company has a current ratio of 2.79, a quick ratio of 2.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.00 billion, a PE ratio of 131.57, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a 50 day moving average of $100.10 and a 200 day moving average of $114.53. Westlake Co. has a fifty-two week low of $81.41 and a fifty-two week high of $161.31.

Westlake (NYSE:WLK - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Monday, February 24th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.06 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.04 by ($0.98). Westlake had a net margin of 0.81% and a return on equity of 6.93%. The company had revenue of $2.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.01 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.72 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Westlake Co. will post 6.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Westlake Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 19th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 4th were issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 4th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.25%. Westlake's dividend payout ratio is presently 45.36%.

Westlake Company 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.