Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) Coverage Initiated at Bank of America

Bank of America started coverage on shares of Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES - Free Report) in a research note released on Thursday, StockNewsAPI reports. The firm issued an underperform rating and a $37.00 price target on the pipeline company's stock.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Western Midstream Partners from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Stifel Nicolaus upped 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. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Western Midstream Partners from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Wednesday. StockNews.com cut shares of Western Midstream Partners from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, October 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Western Midstream Partners from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and set a $42.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Monday, September 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Midstream Partners presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $38.38.

Western Midstream Partners Trading Down 2.2 %

Shares of NYSE:WES traded down $0.85 during trading on Thursday, hitting $38.51. 922,861 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,212,978. Western Midstream Partners has a 1-year low of $26.49 and a 1-year high of $42.80. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $38.62 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $38.22. The company has a current ratio of 1.68, a quick ratio of 1.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.08. The firm has a market cap of $14.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.85, a PEG ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 2.87.

Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The pipeline company reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $905.63 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $904.94 million. Western Midstream Partners had a net margin of 44.01% and a return on equity of 47.19%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 22.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.64 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Western Midstream Partners will post 4.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Midstream Partners Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.875 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 1st. This represents a $3.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.09%. Western Midstream Partners's payout ratio is 98.59%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Petroleum Corp /De/ Occidental sold 19,500,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Blackstone Inc. raised its holdings in Western Midstream Partners by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 12,980,724 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $461,465,000 after buying an additional 259,928 shares during the last quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Western Midstream Partners by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC now owns 6,711,006 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $266,628,000 after buying an additional 37,259 shares during the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP raised 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 valued at $148,095,000 after buying an additional 895,715 shares during the last quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON raised its holdings in Western Midstream Partners by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 2,953,510 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $104,997,000 after buying an additional 77,942 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC raised its holdings in Western Midstream Partners by 96.0% during the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,928,179 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $68,547,000 after purchasing an additional 944,494 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 42.94% of the company's stock.

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.