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Westlake Corporation WLK reported a loss of $782 million or $6.06 per share for the third quarter of 2025. This compares to a profit of $108 million or 83 cents per share in the year-ago quarter.
Barring one-time items, adjusted loss per share came in at 29 cents, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of earnings of 18 cents.
Sales dipped around 8.9% year over year to $2,838 million in the quarter. It missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2,939.1 million. The top line was negatively impacted by lower sales volumes and lower average sales prices.
The results in the third quarter were hampered mainly by challenging macroeconomic conditions characterized by slowing North American residential construction activity and weakness in industrial and manufacturing activity.
Westlake Corporation price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Westlake Corporation Quote
Sales in the Performance and Essential Materials segment went down around 13.5% year over year to $1,747 million in the reported quarter. It lagged our estimate of $1,822 million. Performance and Essential Materials' loss from operations in the third quarter of 2025 was $902 million compared with a loss of $9 million in the third quarter of 2024 due to an uneven global supply-demand balance for many of PEM's products as a result of weaker global industrial and manufacturing demand. Lower average sales prices and sales volumes weighed on the segment’s performance.
The Housing and Infrastructure Products (HIP) segment generated sales of $1,091 million, down around 0.6% from the year-ago quarter. The figure missed our estimate of $1,130 million. HIP’s income from operations in the third quarter of 2025 was $151 million, down $51 million from the third quarter of 2024. The year-over-year decline resulted from lower average sales price and margins, particularly in Pipe & Fittings and several period-related expenses.
Operating activities generated $182 million in net cash in the third quarter of 2025. Capital expenditures were $239 million. For the quarter, free cash outflow was $57 million. As of Sept. 30, 2025, the company's cash and cash equivalents were roughly $1.93 billion, with a long-term debt of $3.9 billion.
Westlake expects its profitability to improve in the following year. As the company faces challenges from weak global demand, it is pushing its cost-cutting plans to offset these pressures. WLK is focusing on enhancing plant reliability to lift EBITDA and has identified $200 million in cost savings targeted for 2026. In addition, footprint optimization measures, including the shutdown of the Pernis facility, are projected to remove about $100 million in annual losses. Such measures are expected to boost profitability in 2026, supported by the company’s broad product range and strong market position.
WLK currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
Some better-ranked stocks worth a look in the basic materials space are Royal Gold, Inc. RGLD, Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd. ASM and Fortuna Mining Corp. FSM.
Royal Gold is scheduled to report third-quarter results on Nov. 5. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for RGLD’s third-quarter earnings is pegged at $2.30 per share. RGLD’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the last four quarters, with the average surprise being 8.95%. Royal Gold currently flaunts a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Avino Silver is slated to report third-quarter results on Nov. 6. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for third-quarter earnings is pegged at 3 cents per share. ASM’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the last four quarters, with the average surprise being 141.67%. Avino Silver carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present.
Fortuna Mining is scheduled to report third-quarter results on Nov. 5. FSM carries a Zacks Rank #2 at present. Fortuna Mining’s earnings beat the consensus estimate in one of the last four quarters and missed three times.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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