ING Groep NV Has $1.56 Million Position in Westlake Chemical Partners LP $WLKP

ING Groep NV boosted its holdings in Westlake Chemical Partners LP (NYSE:WLKP) by 54.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 82,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 29,000 shares during the quarter. ING Groep NV’s holdings in Westlake Chemical Partners were worth $1,558,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. UBS Group AG boosted its holdings in Westlake Chemical Partners by 12.5% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 520,388 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $9,887,000 after acquiring an additional 57,624 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its holdings in Westlake Chemical Partners by 6.0% during the 2nd quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 583,932 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $12,899,000 after acquiring an additional 32,863 shares during the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC purchased a new position in Westlake Chemical Partners during the 2nd quarter worth $387,000. Samalin Investment Counsel LLC boosted its holdings in Westlake Chemical Partners by 53.9% during the 4th quarter. Samalin Investment Counsel LLC now owns 44,326 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $842,000 after acquiring an additional 15,520 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Westlake Chemical Partners by 3.8% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 228,885 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,285,000 after acquiring an additional 8,424 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on WLKP shares. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Westlake Chemical Partners from a “hold (c)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Westlake Chemical Partners from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, March 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy”.

Westlake Chemical Partners Price Performance

WLKP opened at $23.30 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 3.65 and a quick ratio of 3.57. The company has a market capitalization of $821.33 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.21, a P/E/G ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 0.52. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $22.73 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $21.35. Westlake Chemical Partners LP has a 1 year low of $17.75 and a 1 year high of $23.88.

Westlake Chemical Partners (NYSE:WLKP) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The basic materials company reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $305.68 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $522.00 million. Westlake Chemical Partners had a return on equity of 7.15% and a net margin of 4.69%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Westlake Chemical Partners LP will post 1.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Westlake Chemical Partners Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 14th were paid a dividend of $0.4714 per share. This represents a $1.89 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.1%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 14th. Westlake Chemical Partners’s payout ratio is presently 115.24%.

Westlake Chemical Partners Profile

Westlake Chemical Partners LP (NYSE: WLKP) is a publicly traded master limited partnership sponsored by Westlake Chemical Corporation. The partnership owns, operates and acquires a portfolio of ethylene and vinyl manufacturing assets throughout the United States and the United Kingdom. As a downstream producer of basic chemicals and intermediates, WLKP supplies key industrial feedstocks to customers in a variety of end markets.

WLKP’s operations are organized into two primary segments: olefins and vinyls.