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Vertically integrated petrochemical company making PVC, caustic soda and polyethylene, plus PVC pipe and building materials.
Vertically integrated petrochemical company making PVC, caustic soda and polyethylene, plus PVC pipe and building materials.
Makes commodity chemicals whose prices track supply and demand and the cost of ethane and ethylene made from natural gas, which gives it an advantage in cheap US gas. It uses its own PVC to make pipe, fittings and siding, which sell on brands and distributor relationships. The Chao family retains a large controlling stake.
Moat: narrow (scale, cost advantage). Vertical integration from ethylene/chlor-alkali through PVC pipe/building products supports cost advantages.
Headquarters: Houston, Texas, US · Founded: 1986 · Employees: 14,600
Size Westlake (WLK) is a United States Materials company (Chemicals: Specialty) with a market value of $8.11B, the 877th largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $63.49 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares fell 32.4%, against -12.6% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — 6th lowest of 21 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue fell 0.4% over the last twelve months (peer median +11.6%); the operating margin is 1.3% (peer median 15.1%).
Valuation It trades at 38.6× forward earnings against a peer median of 13.0× (2nd most expensive of 19).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 37% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +8%, so the hurdle is +29 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 6.2 points below its cost of capital (7.0% WACC).
Credit Westlake has 9 bonds outstanding ($4.88B), rated BBB by the agencies and trading like BBB at a weighted spread of 123 bp.
Short interest Short interest is 3.3% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 23 Feb 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $11.4B | $11.2B | $12.1B | $12.5B | $15.8B |
| Revenue growth | — | -8% | -3% | -21% | — |
| Gross profit | $1.11B | $689M | $1.84B | $2.10B | $3.92B |
| EBITDA | $1.30B | $967M | $2.08B | $2.33B | $4.14B |
| Net income | -$445M | -$1.50B | $599M | $476M | $2.23B |
| Free cash flow | $12.0M | -$530M | $306M | $1.30B | $2.29B |
| Capital expenditure | $832M | $995M | $1.01B | $1.03B | $1.11B |
| Total debt | $5.87B | $6.44B | $5.43B | $5.65B | $5.50B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Westlake WLK | $8.11B | -32% | 0% | 1% | 38.6× | 37.4% |
| Dow DOW | $22.7B | -14% | +4% | 5% | 14.8× | 4.3% |
| LyondellBasell LYB | $19.6B | -15% | -2% | 10% | 9.5× | -10.3% |
| Olin OLN | $1.97B | -36% | -1% | 0% | n/a | 44.0% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | WLK | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +1.9% | -8.6% | 6th highest of 21 |
| 6-month return | -32.4% | -12.6% | 6th lowest of 21 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -48.9% | -31.2% | 8th lowest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | -0.4% | +11.6% | 3rd lowest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 1.3% | 15.1% | 2nd lowest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 38.6× | 13.0× | 2nd most expensive of 19 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 37.4% | 9.3% | 2nd most demanding of 17 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +8.3% | +11.4% | 7th lowest of 17 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +29.1 pp | -4.6 pp | 2nd most demanding of 17 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | -6.2 pp | +0.4 pp | 2nd lowest of 21 |
| EV / EBITDA | 9.6× | 12.5× | 3rd cheapest of 11 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 3.0× | 1.2× | 3rd most indebted of 12 |
| Bond spread | 123 bp | 96 bp | widest of 4 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Westlake WLK | United States | $8.11B | -32% | 0% | 1% | 38.6× | 37.4% | +8.3% |
| Shandong Hualu-Hengsheng Chemical 600426.SS | China | $8.27B | -32% | +3% | 16% | 12.3× | -2.5% | +18.7% |
| Guangzhou Tinci Materials Technology 002709.SZ | China | $8.73B | -53% | +102% | 19% | 10.3× | 9.3% | +32.3% |
| Tianqi Lithium 9696.HK | Hong Kong | $8.79B | -64% | +116% | 57% | 5.0× | -10.8% | +25.3% |
| Eastman Chemical EMN | United States | $7.37B | -13% | 0% | 10% | 10.2× | 5.1% | +0.7% |
| Croda International CRDA.L | United Kingdom | $6.88B | +31% | +3% | 16% | 23.3× | 19.9% | +4.1% |
| Ganfeng Lithium 002460.SZ | China | $9.71B | -57% | +128% | 18% | 11.5× | 4.4% | +33.1% |
| SOL SOL.MI | Italy | $6.39B | +6% | +9% | 14% | 30.5× | 16.9% | +12.8% |
| NewMarket NEU | United States | $6.39B | +1% | +1% | 20% | n/a | -0.8% | +6.3% |
| Haohua Chemical Science & Technology 600378.SS | China | $6.29B | -9% | +20% | 9% | 22.1× | 11.0% | +25.2% |
| Linde India LINDEINDIA.NS | India | $6.20B | -13% | +13% | 22% | 97.2× | 47.9% | +11.5% |
| Shenzhen Capchem Technology 300037.SZ | China | $6.16B | -21% | +72% | 13% | 19.0× | 19.3% | +26.6% |
| Swancor Advanced Materials 688585.SS | China | $10.9B | +50% | +3% | -25% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Formosa Chemicals & Fibre 1326.TW | Taiwan | $11.1B | +21% | -5% | 1% | 21.0× | 26.2% | +2.5% |
| Inner Mongolia Junzheng Energy & Chemical 601216.SS | China | $5.92B | -16% | +3% | 11% | 12.0× | -3.4% | +11.3% |
| Kingboard 0148.HK | Hong Kong | $5.78B | -17% | +19% | 15% | 5.0× | n/a | n/a |
| Nissan Chemical 4021.T | Japan | $5.72B | 0% | +10% | 23% | 15.9× | 9.3% | +6.0% |
| Zhejiang Longsheng 600352.SS | China | $5.70B | -11% | -1% | 19% | 13.7× | -5.2% | -3.1% |
| Coromandel International COROMANDEL.NS | India | $5.69B | -7% | +24% | 8% | 27.3× | n/a | n/a |
| Albemarle ALB | United States | $11.7B | -51% | +18% | 14% | 11.3× | 10.9% | +10.4% |
| Canmax Technologies 300390.SZ | China | $5.62B | -64% | +98% | 27% | 7.3× | n/a | n/a |
Westlake has 9 bonds outstanding with $4.88B face value. The agencies rate it BBB; its bonds trade like BBB. Weighted yield 5.99%, a spread of 123 bp over government bonds.