Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES) Increases Dividend to $0.88 Per Share

Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 18th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be given a dividend of 0.875 per share by the pipeline company on Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $3.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 30th. This is a positive change from Western Midstream Partners’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.58.

Western Midstream Partners has raised its dividend payment by an average of 17.1% annually over the last three years. Western Midstream Partners has a payout ratio of 65.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Western Midstream Partners to earn $3.52 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.30 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 65.3%.

Western Midstream Partners Price Performance

Shares of WES opened at $35.38 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $13.46 billion, a PE ratio of 13.61 and a beta of 2.83. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $33.77 and its 200 day moving average price is $30.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.40, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.76. Western Midstream Partners has a twelve month low of $24.89 and a twelve month high of $36.79.

Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 21st. The pipeline company reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.78 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $858.21 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $850.23 million. Western Midstream Partners had a net margin of 32.72% and a return on equity of 33.58%. Western Midstream Partners’s revenue was up 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.85 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Western Midstream Partners will post 3.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Western Midstream Partners news, Director Lisa A. Stewart purchased 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $34.87 per share, for a total transaction of $87,175.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 30,730 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,071,555.10. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, Director Lisa A. Stewart bought 2,500 shares of Western Midstream Partners stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were bought at an average price of $34.87 per share, for a total transaction of $87,175.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 30,730 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,071,555.10. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Kenneth F. Owen bought 7,000 shares of Western Midstream Partners stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 26th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $33.96 per share, for a total transaction of $237,720.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 32,730 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,111,510.80. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Midstream Partners

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WES. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC acquired a new stake in shares of Western Midstream Partners in the 1st quarter valued at $27,000. Retirement Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 52.4% in the second quarter. Retirement Group LLC now owns 1,105 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 380 shares during the last quarter. Money Concepts Capital Corp bought a new position in shares of Western Midstream Partners in the fourth quarter valued at about $46,000. IFP Advisors Inc raised its holdings in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 57.6% in the second quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 3,456 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $92,000 after buying an additional 1,263 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Capital Advisors Group LLC. bought a new position in shares of Western Midstream Partners in the second quarter valued at about $110,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 42.94% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on WES shares. Citigroup lowered shares of Western Midstream Partners from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $30.00 to $34.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Western Midstream Partners from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Western Midstream Partners in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Western Midstream Partners from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.64.

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.