XTX Topco Ltd Purchases 7,929 Shares of Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK)

XTX Topco Ltd lifted its holdings in Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK) by 404.7% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 9,888 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after buying an additional 7,929 shares during the period. XTX Topco Ltd’s holdings in Westlake were worth $1,432,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in WLK. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC bought a new stake in Westlake in the first quarter worth approximately $43,000. Quest Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Westlake by 8,400.0% during the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 340 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $49,000 after buying an additional 336 shares during the period. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd increased its stake in shares of Westlake by 66.7% in the 1st quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 500 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $76,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Westlake during the 2nd quarter valued at $101,000. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in Westlake during the second quarter worth $122,000. 28.40% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on WLK. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Westlake from $123.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Westlake from $167.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. StockNews.com cut Westlake from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada raised Westlake from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $157.00 to $174.00 in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Westlake from $172.00 to $160.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $166.00.

Westlake Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of WLK stock opened at $144.28 on Friday. Westlake Co. has a 52-week low of $112.77 and a 52-week high of $162.64. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $143.50 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $148.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 1.94 and a current ratio of 2.61. The company has a market capitalization of $18.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 72.50, a PEG ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 1.18.

Westlake (NYSE:WLK) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The specialty chemicals company reported $2.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.99 by $0.41. The company had revenue of $3.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.22 billion. Westlake had a return on equity of 7.84% and a net margin of 2.27%. Westlake’s quarterly revenue was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.31 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Westlake Co. will post 7.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Westlake Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 5th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 20th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.46%. This is a boost from Westlake’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 20th. Westlake’s payout ratio is presently 105.53%.

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.