ExodusPoint Capital Management LP Has $39.53 Million Stock Holdings in Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK)

ExodusPoint Capital Management LP raised its position in Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK) by 82.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 344,790 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after acquiring an additional 155,618 shares during the period. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP owned about 0.27% of Westlake worth $39,530,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of WLK. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in Westlake by 247.7% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 226 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 161 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP lifted its holdings in shares of Westlake by 6,316.7% during the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 385 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $45,000 after acquiring an additional 379 shares during the period. Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Westlake by 1,668.2% during the 4th quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 389 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $45,000 after acquiring an additional 367 shares during the period. Continuum Advisory LLC increased its stake in Westlake by 43.2% in the third quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC now owns 318 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $48,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Westlake by 72.0% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 523 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 219 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 28.40% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WLK has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Westlake from $175.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Piper Sandler cut shares of Westlake from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $135.00 to $120.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price 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. UBS Group upgraded Westlake from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $144.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Bank of America reduced their price objective on Westlake from $134.00 to $116.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $138.21.

Westlake Price Performance

Shares of WLK stock opened at $101.96 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.04, a current ratio of 2.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. Westlake Co. has a 12 month low of $97.37 and a 12 month high of $162.64. The firm has a market cap of $13.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 143.61, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.18. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $109.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $122.27.

Westlake (NYSE:WLK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 24th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.06 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.04 by ($0.98). Westlake had a return on equity of 6.93% and a net margin of 0.81%. The business had revenue of $2.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.01 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.72 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Westlake Co. will post 6.48 EPS for the current year.

Westlake Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 19th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 4th were given a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 4th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.06%. Westlake’s dividend payout ratio is currently 45.36%.

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.