Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES) Short Interest Up 46.3% in January

Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES - Get Free Report) 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. Based on an average trading volume of 1,370,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 5.4 days. Approximately 3.6% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Midstream Partners

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WES. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in Western Midstream Partners by 6.6% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 22,809,161 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $876,556,000 after buying an additional 1,406,362 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 23.1% in the 4th quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 7,273,186 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $279,509,000 after acquiring an additional 1,366,341 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 23.5% in the third quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP now owns 6,228,448 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $238,300,000 after acquiring an additional 1,184,597 shares in the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. increased its stake in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 6,986.8% during the third quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 708,683 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $27,114,000 after acquiring an additional 698,683 shares during the period. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp raised its holdings in 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 in the last quarter. 84.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on WES. US Capital Advisors raised shares of Western Midstream Partners from a "hold" rating to a "moderate buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a "sector perform" rating and set a $41.00 target price on shares of Western Midstream Partners in a research note on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com cut shares of Western Midstream Partners from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Western Midstream Partners from an "equal weight" rating to an "underweight" rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $42.00 to $40.00 in a report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of 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. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $37.88.

Western Midstream Partners Stock Up 0.4 %

WES stock traded up $0.16 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $41.52. The company had a trading volume of 929,977 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,313,933. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.05, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.11. The company has a market capitalization of $15.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 2.88. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $40.33 and a 200 day simple moving average of $39.14. Western Midstream Partners has a fifty-two week low of $30.01 and a fifty-two week high of $43.33.

Western Midstream Partners Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a $0.875 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $3.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.43%. Western Midstream Partners's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 89.29%.

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.