Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES) Short Interest Update

Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES) saw a large increase in short interest in January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 7,460,000 shares, an increase of 46.3% from the January 15th total of 5,100,000 shares. Currently, 3.6% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,370,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.4 days.

Institutional Trading of Western Midstream Partners

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WES. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 6.6% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 22,809,161 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $876,556,000 after buying an additional 1,406,362 shares during the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 23.5% in the 3rd quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP now owns 6,228,448 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $238,300,000 after acquiring an additional 1,184,597 shares during the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. raised its holdings in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 6,986.8% in the third quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 708,683 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $27,114,000 after buying an additional 698,683 shares during the period. Stifel Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 624.5% during the fourth quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 785,096 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $30,171,000 after purchasing an additional 676,729 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in Western Midstream Partners by 60.1% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,785,105 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $68,298,000 after acquiring an additional 670,440 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WES has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group lowered their price target on Western Midstream Partners from $40.00 to $37.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Morgan Stanley downgraded Western Midstream Partners from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $42.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Friday, October 25th. StockNews.com downgraded Western Midstream Partners from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. US Capital Advisors raised Western Midstream Partners from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $41.00 price target on shares of Western Midstream Partners in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $37.88.

Western Midstream Partners Stock Performance

NYSE:WES traded up $0.07 on Friday, hitting $40.57. The stock had a trading volume of 1,067,835 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,413,380. Western Midstream Partners has a 52-week low of $28.07 and a 52-week high of $43.33. The stock has a market cap of $15.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 2.88. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.05. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $40.18 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $39.09.

Western Midstream Partners Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.875 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $3.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.63%. Western Midstream Partners’s dividend payout ratio is presently 89.29%.

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.