Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) Downgraded by Morgan Stanley

Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) was downgraded by research analysts at Morgan Stanley from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, Briefing.com reports. They currently have a $40.00 price target on the pipeline company’s stock, down from their prior price target of $42.00. Morgan Stanley’s price target points to a potential upside of 3.55% from the company’s current price.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on WES. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Western Midstream Partners from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. UBS Group upped their price objective 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. StockNews.com raised shares of Western Midstream Partners from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, October 20th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Western Midstream Partners from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Bank of America assumed coverage on Western Midstream Partners in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $37.00 target price for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $38.13.

Western Midstream Partners Stock Up 0.8 %

NYSE:WES opened at $38.63 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $38.64 and a 200 day simple moving average of $38.31. Western Midstream Partners has a one year low of $26.49 and a one year high of $42.80. The company has a market capitalization of $14.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 2.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 1.68 and a current ratio of 1.68.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Midstream Partners

In other news, major shareholder Petroleum Corp /De/ Occidental sold 19,500,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.75, for a total value of $697,125,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 165,681,578 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,923,116,413.50. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Western Midstream Partners

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its stake in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 96.0% in the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,928,179 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $68,547,000 after purchasing an additional 944,494 shares during the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Western Midstream Partners by 27.4% in the 1st quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP now owns 4,165,829 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $148,095,000 after purchasing an additional 895,715 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its position in Western Midstream Partners by 174.3% during the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 417,302 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $14,835,000 after purchasing an additional 265,143 shares during the period. Blackstone Inc. grew its holdings in Western Midstream Partners by 2.0% during the first quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 12,980,724 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $461,465,000 after purchasing an additional 259,928 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT raised its position in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 10.1% in the third quarter. CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT now owns 1,315,472 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $50,330,000 after purchasing an additional 120,202 shares during the period. 42.94% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.