Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Purchases New Position in Westlake Corporation $WLK

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new position in Westlake Corporation (NYSE:WLK) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 9,392 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $686,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its holdings in shares of Westlake by 90.0% in the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 38,687 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $3,869,000 after buying an additional 18,321 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Westlake by 9.6% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 19,094 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,881,000 after buying an additional 1,668 shares during the period. United Services Automobile Association purchased a new position in shares of Westlake during the first quarter valued at $211,000. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in shares of Westlake by 43.6% in the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 4,350 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $330,000 after acquiring an additional 1,320 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Prudential Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Westlake by 18.2% in the second quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 3,788 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $288,000 after acquiring an additional 582 shares in the last quarter. 28.40% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Westlake

In other news, Chairman Albert Chao sold 38,873 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.28, for a total transaction of $3,120,724.44. Following the transaction, the chairman directly owned 642,880 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $51,610,406.40. This represents a 5.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Westlake Price Performance

WLK opened at $71.68 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $75.93 and its two-hundred day moving average is $91.55. Westlake Corporation has a 1 year low of $56.33 and a 1 year high of $124.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 2.45 and a quick ratio of 1.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.16 billion, a PE ratio of -7.48 and a beta of 0.63.

Westlake (NYSE:WLK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The specialty chemicals company reported $2.01 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $3.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.24 billion. Westlake had a negative net margin of 10.94% and a positive return on equity of 0.93%. The company’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned ($1.11) EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Westlake Corporation will post 3.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Westlake Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 25th will be issued a $0.533 dividend. This is an increase from Westlake’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. This represents a $2.13 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 25th. Westlake’s dividend payout ratio is presently -22.23%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on WLK. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Westlake in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Westlake from $106.00 to $92.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 2nd. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Westlake from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Westlake from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $90.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Westlake from $110.00 to $89.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $93.92.

About Westlake

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.