Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES) Receives $34.29 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES) has been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the ten ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eight have issued a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $36.75.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Midstream Partners

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Midstream Partners

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Principal Securities Inc. purchased a new position in Western Midstream Partners during the 4th quarter worth $141,000. Jump Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Western Midstream Partners during the fourth quarter worth about $483,000. Ieq Capital LLC increased its position in Western Midstream Partners by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 30,912 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $904,000 after acquiring an additional 834 shares during the period. Wells Fargo & Company MN raised its stake in Western Midstream Partners by 7.6% during the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 1,260,436 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $36,880,000 after acquiring an additional 89,444 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH lifted its position in Western Midstream Partners by 28.6% during the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 708,256 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $20,724,000 after acquiring an additional 157,700 shares during the period. 42.94% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Western Midstream Partners Stock Down 1.7 %

Shares of WES opened at $38.97 on Friday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $14.83 billion, a PE ratio of 10.98, a P/E/G ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 2.87. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $39.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $37.61. Western Midstream Partners has a 1 year low of $26.14 and a 1 year high of $42.80.

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

Western Midstream Partners Announces Dividend

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

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.