Westlake Co. (WLK) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.53 on December 12th

Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, November 15th,NASDAQ Dividends reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 26th will be paid a dividend of 0.525 per share by the specialty chemicals company on Thursday, December 12th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.61%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 26th.

Westlake has raised its dividend by an average of 17.2% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 21 years. Westlake has a dividend payout ratio of 25.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Westlake to earn $7.58 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.10 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 27.7%.

Westlake Trading Up 1.0 %

WLK opened at $130.45 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 183.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a current ratio of 2.79, a quick ratio of 2.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. Westlake has a 12 month low of $118.64 and a 12 month high of $162.64. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $138.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $144.59.

Westlake (NYSE:WLK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.41 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.21 by ($0.80). The firm had revenue of $3.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.31 billion. Westlake had a net margin of 0.81% and a return on equity of 6.93%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.20 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Westlake will post 6.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on WLK. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Westlake from $160.00 to $144.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Barclays raised shares of Westlake from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $162.00 to $180.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com cut shares of Westlake from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Bank of America upgraded Westlake from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $151.00 to $159.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Mizuho started coverage on Westlake in a report on Thursday, August 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $170.00 target price on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $162.17.

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.