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

Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the nine research firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have assigned a hold recommendation, two have given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $44.75.

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Western Midstream Partners from $41.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $46.00 price objective on Western Midstream Partners and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. UBS Group raised their target price on Western Midstream Partners from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. Wall Street Zen raised Western Midstream Partners from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 16th. Finally, US Capital Advisors raised Western Midstream Partners from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Western Midstream Partners news, Director Robert G. Phillips bought 1,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 11th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $40.19 per share, with a total value of $50,237.50. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 5,296 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $212,846.24. This trade represents a 30.89% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.04% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Midstream Partners

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Alps Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Western Midstream Partners by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 35,074,357 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,385,437,000 after purchasing an additional 299,631 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Western Midstream Partners by 0.3% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 24,292,437 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $954,450,000 after acquiring an additional 81,183 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in Western Midstream Partners by 10.9% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 9,562,213 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $377,707,000 after acquiring an additional 936,376 shares during the period. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. grew its stake in Western Midstream Partners by 15.8% in the fourth quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. now owns 8,539,175 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $337,297,000 after acquiring an additional 1,163,991 shares during the period. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. acquired a new stake in Western Midstream Partners in the third quarter valued at approximately $300,257,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.82% of the company’s stock.

Western Midstream Partners Price Performance

Shares of WES opened at $45.19 on Friday. Western Midstream Partners has a 1 year low of $36.90 and a 1 year high of $48.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.34, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 1.09. The company has a market capitalization of $17.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 0.68. The business has a 50-day moving average of $42.82 and a 200-day moving average of $41.37.

Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.11. Western Midstream Partners had a return on equity of 33.89% and a net margin of 29.98%.The company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.01 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.79 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 22.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Western Midstream Partners will post 3.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Midstream Partners Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Investors of record on Friday, May 1st were paid a dividend of $0.93 per share. This is an increase from Western Midstream Partners’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. This represents a $3.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 1st. Western Midstream Partners’s payout ratio is 121.57%.

Western Midstream Partners Company Profile

Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE: WES) is a midstream energy infrastructure company that owns, operates and develops an integrated network of crude oil, natural gas and produced water gathering, processing, transportation and storage assets in the United States. The partnership’s primary offerings include pipeline transportation, fractionation services, natural gas liquids (NGL) logistics and produced water handling. Through its fee-based and commodity-based contracts, Western Midstream provides its customers with essential services that support efficient energy production and distribution.

The company’s asset portfolio spans key onshore basins, including the Delaware Basin in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico, the San Juan Basin in New Mexico and Colorado, and the Denver-Julesburg Basin in Colorado.