Fiduciary Group LLC Acquires New Position in Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES)

Fiduciary Group LLC bought a new position in Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES) during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 5,070 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $208,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in WES. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 6.6% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 22,809,161 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $876,556,000 after buying an additional 1,406,362 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its holdings in Western Midstream Partners by 23.1% during 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 in the last quarter. Stifel Financial Corp increased its position in Western Midstream Partners by 624.5% during the 4th quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 785,096 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $30,171,000 after purchasing an additional 676,729 shares during the period. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 83.1% in the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,404,381 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $53,971,000 after purchasing an additional 637,266 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Western Midstream Partners in the 4th quarter valued at about $19,079,000. 84.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WES has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Western Midstream Partners from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 8th. Mizuho cut their price target on Western Midstream Partners from $45.00 to $44.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $39.83.

Western Midstream Partners Trading Up 1.3%

NYSE WES opened at $39.08 on Thursday. Western Midstream Partners, LP has a 52 week low of $33.60 and a 52 week high of $43.33. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $38.20 and a 200 day moving average price of $39.26. The company has a quick ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.08. The firm has a market cap of $14.90 billion, a PE ratio of 11.67 and a beta of 1.08.

Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The pipeline company reported $0.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.83 by ($0.04). Western Midstream Partners had a return on equity of 38.52% and a net margin of 35.79%. The firm had revenue of $917.12 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $926.55 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.47 earnings per share. Western Midstream Partners’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Western Midstream Partners, LP will post 4.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Midstream Partners Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Friday, May 2nd were given a dividend of $0.91 per share. This is a positive change from Western Midstream Partners’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.31%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 2nd. Western Midstream Partners’s dividend payout ratio is currently 108.66%.

Western Midstream Partners Profile

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.