Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) Raised to Strong-Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report released on Sunday morning.

WES has been the subject of several other research reports. Morgan Stanley cut Western Midstream Partners from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $42.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Monday, September 16th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Western Midstream Partners from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. 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 research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Bank of America began coverage on shares of 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. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Western Midstream Partners from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Western Midstream Partners currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $38.38.

Western Midstream Partners Stock Down 0.0 %

Shares of NYSE WES opened at $38.31 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $38.62 and its 200 day moving average is $38.31. Western Midstream Partners has a 52 week low of $26.49 and a 52 week high of $42.80. The company has a quick ratio of 1.68, a current ratio of 1.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.08. The company has a market cap of $14.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.79, a PEG ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 2.87.

Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) last released 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 for 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.64 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Western Midstream Partners will post 4.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Midstream Partners Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 1st will be given a $0.875 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 1st. This represents a $3.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.14%. Western Midstream Partners’s dividend payout ratio is currently 98.59%.

Insider Activity at Western Midstream Partners

In other Western Midstream Partners news, major shareholder Petroleum Corp /De/ Occidental sold 19,500,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.75, for a total value of $697,125,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 165,681,578 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,923,116,413.50. The trade was 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. 0.04% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 16.1% during the 3rd quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 2,158 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $83,000 after acquiring an additional 299 shares during the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC lifted its position in Western Midstream Partners by 5.8% during the third quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 5,711 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $218,000 after purchasing an additional 311 shares during the period. Albert D Mason Inc. lifted its position in Western Midstream Partners by 0.7% during the second quarter. Albert D Mason Inc. now owns 48,760 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,937,000 after purchasing an additional 333 shares during the period. Belfer Management LLC boosted its holdings in Western Midstream Partners by 4.4% in the first quarter. Belfer Management LLC now owns 9,957 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $354,000 after purchasing an additional 418 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Truist Financial Corp grew its position in Western Midstream Partners by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 22,508 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $894,000 after purchasing an additional 421 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 42.94% of the company’s stock.

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.