Westlake Corporation (WLK) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.53 on March 18th

Westlake Corporation (NYSE:WLK) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 20th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 3rd will be paid a dividend of 0.53 per share by the specialty chemicals company on Wednesday, March 18th. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 3rd.

Westlake has increased its dividend by an average of 0.1%per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 21 consecutive years. Westlake has a payout ratio of 41.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Westlake to earn $7.44 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.12 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 28.5%.

Westlake Trading Up 5.2%

Shares of WLK opened at $105.59 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.02, a PEG ratio of 45.50 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a 50-day moving average of $87.02 and a 200 day moving average of $79.82. Westlake has a 1-year low of $56.33 and a 1-year high of $114.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 2.24 and a quick ratio of 1.39.

Westlake (NYSE:WLK) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 24th. The specialty chemicals company reported ($0.25) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.47) by $1.22. The business had revenue of $2.53 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.61 billion. Westlake had a negative return on equity of 1.22% and a negative net margin of 13.50%.Westlake’s revenue was down 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.06 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Westlake will post 6.48 EPS for the current year.

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.