Nomura Instinet analyst Aleksey Yefremov downgraded Westlake Chemical (WLK) to Neutral from Buy and lowered his price target for the shares to $120 from $125. The analyst expects softer demand to weigh on cyclical stocks and reduced his estimates for seven names in the Americas Chemicals space. He sees more challenging outlooks for the second half of 2018 compared to the first half due to easing demand in certain commodities/materials, inflation in raw materials and other costs, and less favorable currency. Yefremov now sees Westlake's risk/reward as more balanced given his more cautious stance on U.S. caustic soda prices, especially in the near term. The analyst likes DowDuPont (DWDP) and FMC Corporation (FMC) the most among his Buy-rated names.

RBC Capital analyst Arun Viswanathan raised the firm's price target on Westlake to $153 from $134 and keeps a Sector Perform rating on the shares as part of a broader research note previewing Q1 results in Commodity Chemicals. Destocking has ended in most chains, but high interest rates and weak demand have persisted, the analyst tells investors in a research note. RBC further notes that it no longer expects three rate cuts from the Fed this year, warning that volume recoveries across consumer, auto, and construction could likely be slower, resulting in companies tempering FY24 guides. The firm adds however that it has raised its assumed EBITDA multiple on the stock to 8.5-times from 7.5-times, driving a higher price target, while noting that investors are beginnnig to give the company credit for its building products business.

As previously reported, Deutsche Bank analyst David Begleiter upgraded Westlake to Buy from Hold with a price target of $174, up from $138. Shares have outperformed over the last 12 months, but the analyst argues its "not too late" as this outperformance has occurred despite weak fundamentals in each of Westlake's its commodity chains. Investors have focused on and rewarded Westlake for its building products business, a leading North American supplier in the premium roofing, sliding, trim and shutter, decorative stone and windows business. While stating that "sum of the parts stories rarely, if ever, work," the firm believes Westlake "could be on one of the rare sum of the parts stories does work."