Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc. Has $45,000 Stock Holdings in Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK)

Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Westlake Co. (NYSE:WLK) by 1,668.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 389 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after buying an additional 367 shares during the period. Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Westlake were worth $45,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Westlake by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,877,973 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $444,610,000 after buying an additional 21,293 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its position in Westlake by 21.0% in the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,313,847 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $379,933,000 after acquiring an additional 574,068 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Westlake by 0.8% during the third 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. lifted its holdings in shares of Westlake by 699.1% during the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 595,149 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $89,445,000 after purchasing an additional 520,669 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Westlake by 4.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 552,646 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $82,837,000 after purchasing an additional 23,558 shares during the last quarter. 28.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WLK has been the topic of several recent research reports. StockNews.com raised Westlake from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of Westlake from $134.00 to $116.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. UBS Group upgraded Westlake from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $144.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, January 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Westlake from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $135.00 to $110.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Westlake from $157.00 to $132.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $138.21.

Westlake Stock Performance

Shares of WLK opened at $99.09 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 139.57, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 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 Co. has a 52 week low of $98.51 and a 52 week high of $162.64. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $110.56 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $122.94.

Westlake (NYSE:WLK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 24th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.06 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.04 by ($0.98). Westlake had a net margin of 0.81% and a return on equity of 6.93%. The company had revenue of $2.84 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.01 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.72 earnings per share. Westlake’s revenue was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Westlake Co. will post 6.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Westlake Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 19th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 4th were paid a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 4th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.12%. Westlake’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 45.36%.

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.