Bank of America Maintains Underperform, $43 PO on Westlake Chemical

Bank of America reiterates its Underperform rating and $43 price objective on Westlake Chemical

following 4Q11 miss on vinyls. Bank of America says, "First blush suggests WLK reported 4Q EPS of $0.40A vs. our 0.58E and the FC mean of $0.62E. Westlake's Olefins (ethylene and polyethylene) segment posted profit in line with our forecast, while Vinyls posted a sizeable loss that accounted for the variance vs. our model. Overall, volumes improved held flat (-0.4%) q-q but lower unit margins resulted in sequential earnings pressure. A lower tax rate of 32.6% added $0.02 to EPS vs. the rate of 36.0% that we had modeled." WLK closed at $60.49 a share on Friday.