LyondellBasell Industries (LYB) Competitors

LyondellBasell Industries (NYSE:LYB) and Westlake (NYSE:WLK) are both basic materials companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their media sentiment, institutional ownership, community ranking, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, earnings, dividends and risk.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer LYB or WLK?

LyondellBasell Industries received 282 more outperform votes than Westlake when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 62.91% of users gave LyondellBasell Industries an outperform vote while only 56.70% of users gave Westlake an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
LyondellBasell Industries	Outperform Votes 760 62.91%	Underperform Votes 448 37.09%
Westlake	Outperform Votes 478 56.70%	Underperform Votes 365 43.30%

Do institutionals and insiders believe in LYB or WLK?

71.2% of LyondellBasell Industries shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 28.4% of Westlake shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of LyondellBasell Industries shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of Westlake shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Do analysts rate LYB or WLK?

LyondellBasell Industries currently has a consensus price target of $69.75, suggesting a potential upside of 23.26%. Westlake has a consensus price target of $103.54, suggesting a potential upside of 40.45%. Given Westlake's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Westlake is more favorable than LyondellBasell Industries.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
LyondellBasell Industries	2 Sell rating(s)	9 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.14
Westlake	0 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.54

Is LYB or WLK a better dividend stock?

LyondellBasell Industries pays an annual dividend of $5.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.5%. Westlake pays an annual dividend of $2.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. LyondellBasell Industries pays out 165.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Westlake pays out 70.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. LyondellBasell Industries has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years and Westlake has increased its dividend for 21 consecutive years.

Is LYB or WLK more profitable?

LyondellBasell Industries has a net margin of 3.39% compared to Westlake's net margin of 0.81%. LyondellBasell Industries' return on equity of 15.97% beat Westlake's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
LyondellBasell Industries	3.39%	15.97%	5.74%
Westlake	0.81%	6.93%	3.61%

Which has stronger valuation and earnings, LYB or WLK?

LyondellBasell Industries has higher revenue and earnings than Westlake. LyondellBasell Industries is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Westlake, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
LyondellBasell Industries	$39.68B	0.46	$1.37B	$3.24	17.47
Westlake	$12.01B	0.79	$479M	$2.98	24.74

Which has more volatility and risk, LYB or WLK?

LyondellBasell Industries has a beta of 0.87, meaning that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Westlake has a beta of 1.03, meaning that its share price is 3% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media refer more to LYB or WLK?

In the previous week, Westlake had 7 more articles in the media than LyondellBasell Industries. MarketBeat recorded 23 mentions for Westlake and 16 mentions for LyondellBasell Industries. LyondellBasell Industries' average media sentiment score of 1.32 beat Westlake's score of 0.73 indicating that LyondellBasell Industries is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
LyondellBasell Industries	12 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Westlake	11 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	6 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

LyondellBasell Industries beats Westlake on 12 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.