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

Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the ten brokerages that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $36.75.

WES has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Western Midstream Partners from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $42.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Western Midstream Partners from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. StockNews.com cut shares of Western Midstream Partners from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Western Midstream Partners from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on Western Midstream Partners from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Petroleum Corp /De/ Occidental sold 19,500,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.75, for a total transaction of $697,125,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 165,681,578 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,923,116,413.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.04% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Midstream Partners

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of WES. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Western Midstream Partners in the second quarter valued at about $694,000. Truist Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 22,508 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $894,000 after acquiring an additional 421 shares during the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. purchased a new position in shares of Western Midstream Partners during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $397,000. Daymark Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Western Midstream Partners in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,244,000. Finally, Sfmg LLC purchased a new stake in Western Midstream Partners in the second quarter valued at approximately $205,000. 42.94% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Western Midstream Partners Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of Western Midstream Partners stock opened at $38.97 on Friday. Western Midstream Partners has a fifty-two week low of $26.14 and a fifty-two week high of $42.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 1.68 and a current ratio of 1.68. The company has a market cap of $14.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 2.87. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $39.25 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $37.61.

Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The pipeline company reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $905.63 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $904.94 million. Western Midstream Partners had a return on equity of 47.19% and a net margin of 44.01%. Western Midstream Partners’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.64 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Western Midstream Partners will post 4.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Midstream Partners Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 1st were given a dividend of $0.875 per share. This represents a $3.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.98%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 1st. Western Midstream Partners’s payout ratio is currently 98.59%.

About Western Midstream Partners

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.