Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK) Shares Sold by Nordea Investment Management AB

Nordea Investment Management AB trimmed its holdings in Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK) by 22.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,403 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 1,264 shares during the quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB’s holdings in Westlake were worth $507,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Westlake by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,198,710 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $180,154,000 after acquiring an additional 9,838 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its holdings in Westlake by 699.1% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 595,149 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $89,445,000 after buying an additional 520,669 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Westlake by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 552,646 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $82,837,000 after buying an additional 23,558 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its holdings in Westlake by 90.6% during the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 386,480 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $58,084,000 after buying an additional 183,666 shares during the period. Finally, Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP acquired a new stake in Westlake during the 3rd quarter worth about $55,542,000. 28.40% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have issued reports on WLK. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Westlake from $171.00 to $165.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Westlake from $180.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. StockNews.com upgraded Westlake from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Bank of America upgraded Westlake from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $151.00 to $159.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $156.92.

Westlake Trading Down 0.5 %

NYSE:WLK opened at $110.03 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $122.17 and its 200 day moving average price is $135.67. Westlake Co. has a 52 week low of $108.95 and a 52 week high of $162.64. The company has a market capitalization of $14.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 154.97, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 2.04 and a current ratio of 2.79.

Westlake (NYSE:WLK) last released its quarterly earnings data 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). Westlake had a return on equity of 6.93% and a net margin of 0.81%. The firm had revenue of $3.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.31 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.20 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Westlake Co. will post 6.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Westlake Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 26th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 26th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.91%. Westlake’s payout ratio is currently 295.77%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Westlake news, Director David Tsung-Hung Chao sold 1,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.00, for a total transaction of $227,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 9,534 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,239,420. This represents a 15.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 74.10% 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.