Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) Cut to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Sunday,Wall Street Zen reports.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Western Midstream Partners from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 18th. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Western Midstream Partners from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their target price on shares of Western Midstream Partners from $41.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, August 24th. US Capital Advisors raised shares of Western Midstream Partners from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Western Midstream Partners from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.89.

Western Midstream Partners Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WES opened at $46.05 on Friday. Western Midstream Partners has a fifty-two week low of $36.90 and a fifty-two week high of $50.07. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $47.77 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $44.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.02, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.91. The firm has a market cap of $19.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 0.69.

Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.99 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $1.22 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.13 billion. Western Midstream Partners had a return on equity of 33.13% and a net margin of 29.44%.The company’s revenue was up 30.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.87 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Western Midstream Partners will post 3.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Midstream Partners Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 14th. Investors of record on Friday, July 31st were paid a dividend of $0.93 per share. This represents a $3.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 31st. Western Midstream Partners’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 116.98%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Frederick Forthuber acquired 5,140 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 12th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $48.62 per share, with a total value of $249,906.80. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 5,140 shares in the company, valued at $249,906.80. This represents a ∞ increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.04% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Midstream Partners

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Alps Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Western Midstream Partners by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 35,074,357 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,385,437,000 after acquiring an additional 299,631 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in Western Midstream Partners by 10.9% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 9,562,213 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $377,707,000 after purchasing an additional 936,376 shares in the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its stake in Western Midstream Partners by 17.5% in the 4th quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,623,943 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $103,646,000 after purchasing an additional 391,000 shares in the last quarter. CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT boosted its holdings in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 8.8% during the 1st quarter. CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT now owns 1,676,900 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $69,038,000 after purchasing an additional 136,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY boosted its holdings in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 6.3% during the 1st quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY now owns 1,584,975 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $65,253,000 after purchasing an additional 93,543 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.82% of the company’s stock.

About Western Midstream Partners

Western Midstream Partners, L.P. (NYSE:WES) is a publicly traded master limited partnership that owns, operates and develops midstream energy assets. The company provides gathering, processing, treating, compression, transportation and storage services for natural gas, crude oil, natural gas liquids and produced water.

Western Midstream’s infrastructure includes gathering systems, processing plants, pipelines, compressor stations, treatment facilities, storage assets and water-handling systems.