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

Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, May 12th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 20th will be paid a dividend of 0.525 per share by the specialty chemicals company on Thursday, June 5th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.45%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 20th.

Westlake has increased its dividend payment by an average of 21.8% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 21 consecutive years. Westlake has a payout ratio of 36.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Westlake to earn $7.44 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 28.2%.

Westlake Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WLK traded up $5.62 during trading on Monday, reaching $85.62. The stock had a trading volume of 1,219,364 shares, compared to its average volume of 599,389. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 2.04 and a current ratio of 2.79. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $95.30 and a 200-day moving average price of $111.05. The stock has a market cap of $10.98 billion, a PE ratio of 120.59, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.03. Westlake has a 1-year low of $76.97 and a 1-year high of $161.31.

Westlake (NYSE:WLK - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 2nd. The specialty chemicals company reported ($0.31) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.70 by ($1.01). The company had revenue of $2.85 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.97 billion. Westlake had a return on equity of 6.93% and a net margin of 0.81%. The business's quarterly revenue was down 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.34 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Westlake will post 6.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WLK has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Westlake from $122.00 to $98.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on Westlake from $122.00 to $96.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on Westlake from $125.00 to $103.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. UBS Group reduced their target price on Westlake from $144.00 to $127.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on Westlake from $130.00 to $116.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five 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 an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $106.08.

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.

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