Westlake Chemical Partners LP (NYSE:WLKP) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.47

Westlake Chemical Partners LP (NYSE:WLKP) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 30th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 13th will be given a dividend of 0.4714 per share by the basic materials company on Wednesday, May 29th. This represents a $1.89 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 10th.

Westlake Chemical Partners has a dividend payout ratio of 93.1% meaning its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings fall. Equities research analysts expect Westlake Chemical Partners to earn $1.91 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.89 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 99.0%.

Westlake Chemical Partners Stock Performance

NYSE:WLKP opened at $22.04 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 4.02, a quick ratio of 3.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $22.20 and its 200-day moving average price is $22.14. The company has a market cap of $776.47 million, a P/E ratio of 14.31 and a beta of 1.08. Westlake Chemical Partners has a twelve month low of $20.86 and a twelve month high of $23.68.

Westlake Chemical Partners (NYSE:WLKP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The basic materials company reported $0.41 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.45 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $297.27 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $316.62 million. Westlake Chemical Partners had a net margin of 4.56% and a return on equity of 6.25%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.48 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Westlake Chemical Partners will post 1.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Westlake Chemical Partners news, SVP Andrew Kenner purchased 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $22.30 per share, for a total transaction of $111,500.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the senior vice president now directly owns 141,609 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,157,880.70. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Over the last quarter, insiders acquired 24,230 shares of company stock valued at $537,587. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com upgraded Westlake Chemical Partners from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th.

Westlake Chemical Partners Company Profile

Westlake Chemical Partners LP acquires, develops, and operates ethylene production facilities and related assets in the United States. The company's ethylene production facilities primarily convert ethane into ethylene. It also sells ethylene co-products, such as propylene, crude butadiene, pyrolysis gasoline, and hydrogen directly to third parties on either a spot or contract basis.