Barclays Lowers Westlake (NYSE:WLK) Price Target to $100.00

Westlake (NYSE:WLK) had its price target lowered by equities researchers at Barclays from $135.00 to $100.00 in a note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “overweight” rating on the specialty chemicals company’s stock. Barclays‘s target price suggests a potential upside of 26.73% from the stock’s current price.

WLK has been the subject of a number of other reports. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Westlake from $130.00 to $110.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Westlake from $130.00 to $122.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Westlake from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $135.00 to $110.00 in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Westlake from $147.00 to $133.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Westlake from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $116.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Westlake currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $110.77.

Westlake Price Performance

Shares of WLK opened at $78.91 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $97.09 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $112.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 2.79 and a quick ratio of 2.04. Westlake has a 1-year low of $77.23 and a 1-year high of $161.31. The stock has a market cap of $10.14 billion, a PE ratio of 111.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.03.

Westlake (NYSE:WLK) last announced its earnings results on Friday, May 2nd. The specialty chemicals company reported ($0.31) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by ($1.01). Westlake had a net margin of 0.81% and a return on equity of 6.93%. The firm had revenue of $2.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.97 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.34 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Westlake will post 6.48 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Westlake

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Westlake by 17.7% in the first quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,900,025 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $390,120,000 after purchasing an additional 586,178 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Westlake by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,877,973 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $444,610,000 after buying an additional 21,293 shares during the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its position in Westlake by 732.7% in the fourth quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 993,150 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $113,865,000 after acquiring an additional 873,888 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Westlake by 6.3% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 983,090 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $112,711,000 after acquiring an additional 58,093 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Westlake by 4.9% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 934,122 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $107,092,000 after purchasing an additional 43,544 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 28.40% of the company’s stock.

About Westlake

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.