Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES) has received an average rating of “Hold” from the twelve brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have given a hold recommendation and six have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $30.36.

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Mizuho decreased their price objective on Western Midstream Partners from $35.00 to $34.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 6th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Western Midstream Partners from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 5th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Western Midstream Partners from $32.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 11th. StockNews.com began coverage on Western Midstream Partners in a research note on Thursday, October 5th. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Western Midstream Partners from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 12th.

Western Midstream Partners Stock Performance

Shares of WES opened at $28.52 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $27.24 and a two-hundred day moving average of $26.91. Western Midstream Partners has a one year low of $23.79 and a one year high of $28.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.46, a quick ratio of 1.79 and a current ratio of 1.79. The stock has a market cap of $10.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.52 and a beta of 2.77.

Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 1st. The pipeline company reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.64 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $776.01 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $798.38 million. Western Midstream Partners had a return on equity of 34.94% and a net margin of 35.15%. The firm’s revenue was down 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.66 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Western Midstream Partners will post 2.6 EPS for the current year.

Western Midstream Partners Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 13th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 1st were paid a dividend of $0.575 per share. This is a positive change from Western Midstream Partners’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.56. This represents a $2.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.06%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, October 31st. Western Midstream Partners’s payout ratio is 84.87%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Western Midstream Partners news, major shareholder Petroleum Corp /De/ Occidental sold 5,100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total transaction of $127,500,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 185,181,578 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,629,539,450. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.04% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WES. Alps Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 13.0% during the 3rd quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 33,519,544 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $912,737,000 after purchasing an additional 3,855,558 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 13.8% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 20,746,835 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $564,936,000 after purchasing an additional 2,520,712 shares during the last quarter. Comerica Bank acquired a new position in shares of Western Midstream Partners during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $44,781,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 41.7% during the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 4,445,899 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $117,238,000 after purchasing an additional 1,309,095 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 65.0% during the 1st quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 2,799,876 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $73,832,000 after purchasing an additional 1,102,543 shares during the last quarter. 42.02% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Western Midstream Partners Company Profile

Western Midstream Partners, LP, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a midstream energy company primarily in the United States. It is involved in gathering, compressing, treating, processing, and transporting natural gas; gathering, stabilizing, and transporting condensate, natural gas liquids (NGLs), and crude oil; and gathering and disposing produced water.