Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.88

Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, October 17th, NASDAQ reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 1st will be given a dividend of 0.875 per share by the pipeline company on Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $3.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 1st.

Western Midstream Partners has increased its dividend by an average of 11.2% per year over the last three years. Western Midstream Partners has a payout ratio of 94.6% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings decline. Equities research analysts expect Western Midstream Partners to earn $3.65 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.50 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 95.9%.

Western Midstream Partners Stock Down 1.6 %

NYSE WES opened at $37.39 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $38.61 and its 200-day moving average price is $38.39. The company has a market capitalization of $14.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 2.87. The company has a quick ratio of 1.68, a current ratio of 1.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.08. Western Midstream Partners has a 52 week low of $26.49 and a 52 week high of $42.80.

Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The pipeline company reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $905.63 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $904.94 million. Western Midstream Partners had a net margin of 44.01% and a return on equity of 47.19%. The company’s revenue was up 22.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.64 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Western Midstream Partners will post 4.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WES has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Bank of America initiated coverage on Western Midstream Partners in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $37.00 target price for the company. StockNews.com lowered shares of Western Midstream Partners from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Western Midstream Partners from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target 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. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Western Midstream Partners from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $38.13.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Western Midstream Partners news, major shareholder Petroleum Corp /De/ Occidental sold 19,500,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 165,681,578 shares in the company, valued at $5,923,116,413.50. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.