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

Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) was upgraded by StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report issued on Friday.

A number of other brokerages have also commented on WES. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Western Midstream Partners from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Western Midstream Partners from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $42.00 target price for the company. in a report on Monday, September 16th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Western Midstream Partners from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $36.75.

Western Midstream Partners Price Performance

WES stock traded up $0.34 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $39.09. 559,671 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,233,217. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $38.65 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $37.92. Western Midstream Partners has a 1-year low of $26.40 and a 1-year 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 $14.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.01, a PEG ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 2.87.

Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) last announced its earnings results 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. 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $904.94 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.64 EPS. Western Midstream Partners’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Western Midstream Partners will post 4.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Petroleum Corp /De/ Occidental sold 19,500,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.75, for a total transaction of $697,125,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 165,681,578 shares in the company, valued at $5,923,116,413.50. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Midstream Partners

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in WES. GSA Capital Partners LLP acquired a new stake in Western Midstream Partners in the first quarter worth about $1,967,000. DRW Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of Western Midstream Partners in the fourth quarter worth about $1,550,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its stake in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 174.3% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 417,302 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $14,835,000 after acquiring an additional 265,143 shares during the last quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY grew its stake in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 3.2% in the first quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY now owns 1,418,703 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $50,435,000 after purchasing an additional 44,176 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Highland Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Western Midstream Partners in the 2nd quarter valued at about $516,000. 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.