Analysts Offer Predictions for Westlake FY2026 Earnings

Westlake Corporation (NYSE:WLK) – Investment analysts at KeyCorp issued their FY2026 earnings estimates for shares of Westlake in a research report issued on Thursday, September 10th. KeyCorp analyst S. Tiano anticipates that the specialty chemicals company will post earnings of $2.90 per share for the year. KeyCorp has a “Overweight” rating and a $92.00 price objective on the stock. The consensus estimate for Westlake’s current full-year earnings is $3.31 per share.

WLK has been the subject of several other research reports. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Westlake from $106.00 to $92.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd. Bank of America reduced their price target on shares of Westlake from $104.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $85.00 price target on shares of Westlake in a report on Thursday, July 16th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $117.00 price objective (down from $130.00) on shares of Westlake in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Westlake from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 8th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $93.79.

Westlake Trading Down 2.8%

Shares of WLK opened at $68.86 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $8.80 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.19 and a beta of 0.63. Westlake has a one year low of $56.33 and a one year high of $124.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.70 and a current ratio of 2.45. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $75.67 and a 200 day moving average price of $90.99.

Westlake (NYSE:WLK) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The specialty chemicals company reported $2.01 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.18. Westlake had a positive return on equity of 0.93% and a negative net margin of 10.94%.The company had revenue of $3.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.24 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($1.11) earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Westlake

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Westlake during the second quarter valued at about $240,474,000. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Westlake by 5,958.8% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 2,693,700 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $196,640,000 after purchasing an additional 2,649,241 shares during the period. Capital World Investors acquired a new position in shares of Westlake during the 4th quarter worth about $160,548,000. Brandes Investment Partners LP lifted its position in shares of Westlake by 7.9% during the 4th quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP now owns 1,670,327 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $123,505,000 after purchasing an additional 121,633 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC boosted its stake in Westlake by 21.5% during the 4th quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC now owns 536,290 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $39,653,000 after purchasing an additional 94,950 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 28.40% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Chairman Albert Chao sold 38,873 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.28, for a total transaction of $3,120,724.44. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman directly owned 642,880 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $51,610,406.40. This trade represents a 5.70% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Westlake Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 10th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 25th were given a dividend of $0.533 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 25th. This is a positive change from Westlake’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. This represents a $2.13 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. Westlake’s payout ratio is -22.23%.

Westlake Company Profile

Westlake Corporation is a global manufacturer of performance and essential materials headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company produces chemicals, polymers and building products used in construction, infrastructure, packaging, healthcare, consumer goods and other industrial applications.

Its Performance and Essential Materials businesses manufacture products such as chlor-alkali chemicals, vinyl chloride monomer, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene, epoxy resins and related specialty materials.