Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK) Short Interest Update

Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK - Get Free Report) saw a large increase in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,010,000 shares, an increase of 30.5% from the February 28th total of 1,540,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 687,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.9 days. Currently, 6.1% of the company's stock are sold short.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Westlake

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. boosted its holdings in Westlake by 732.7% during the fourth quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 993,150 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $113,865,000 after buying an additional 873,888 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Westlake by 21.0% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,313,847 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $379,933,000 after acquiring an additional 574,068 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Westlake by 699.1% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 595,149 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock worth $89,445,000 after acquiring an additional 520,669 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Westlake during the 4th quarter valued at about $46,630,000. Finally, Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP purchased a new position in shares of Westlake in the 3rd quarter valued at about $55,542,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 28.40% of the company's stock.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler cut shares of Westlake from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $135.00 to $120.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Citigroup raised Westlake from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and dropped their target price for the company from $152.00 to $140.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. UBS Group raised Westlake from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $144.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, January 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Westlake from an "underweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $135.00 to $110.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on Westlake from $147.00 to $133.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $138.21.

Westlake Stock Performance

NYSE WLK traded down $7.71 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $94.30. The stock had a trading volume of 1,117,711 shares, compared to its average volume of 546,179. Westlake has a 52-week low of $93.68 and a 52-week high of $162.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 2.04 and a current ratio of 2.79. The stock has a market cap of $12.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 132.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.18. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $109.50 and a 200 day moving average of $122.27.

Westlake (NYSE:WLK - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 24th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.06 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.04 by ($0.98). The business had revenue of $2.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.01 billion. Westlake had a return on equity of 6.93% and a net margin of 0.81%. The firm's revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.72 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Westlake will post 6.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Westlake Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 19th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 4th were issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 4th. Westlake's 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.