Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.53

Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, November 15th,NASDAQ Dividends reports. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.61%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 26th.

Westlake has increased its dividend by an average of 17.2% 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 25.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research 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 Price Performance

Shares of WLK stock opened at $130.45 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $138.31 and its 200 day moving average is $144.59. The company has a quick ratio of 2.04, a current ratio of 2.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. The stock has a market cap of $16.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 183.73, a PEG ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.19. Westlake has a twelve month low of $118.64 and a twelve month high of $162.64.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on WLK. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Westlake from $123.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Bank of America upgraded Westlake from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $151.00 to $159.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on Westlake from $170.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 11th. UBS Group lowered their price target on Westlake from $160.00 to $144.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of Westlake from $180.00 to $170.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $162.17.

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.