Critical Survey: Western Midstream Partners (WES) and Its Competitors

Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) is one of 1,051 publicly-traded companies in the “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” industry, but how does it contrast to its rivals? We will compare Western Midstream Partners to related businesses based on the strength of its earnings, dividends, valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Western Midstream Partners and its rivals, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Western Midstream Partners	0	7	3	1	2.45
Western Midstream Partners Competitors	5994	27032	40912	2431	2.52

Western Midstream Partners presently has a consensus price target of $49.33, indicating a potential upside of 19.37%. As a group, “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” companies have a potential upside of 27.20%. Given Western Midstream Partners’ rivals stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Western Midstream Partners has less favorable growth aspects than its rivals.

Dividends

Western Midstream Partners pays an annual dividend of $3.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.0%. Western Midstream Partners pays out 120.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” companies pay a dividend yield of 9.1% and pay out -135.5% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Western Midstream Partners has increased its dividend for 5 consecutive years. Western Midstream Partners lags its rivals as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Volatility & Risk

Western Midstream Partners has a beta of 0.75, indicating that its share price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Western Midstream Partners’ rivals have a beta of -3.73, indicating that their average share price is 473% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Western Midstream Partners and its rivals top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Western Midstream Partners	$4.57 billion	$1.18 billion	13.37
Western Midstream Partners Competitors	$14.91 billion	$5.51 billion	-1.07

Western Midstream Partners’ rivals have higher revenue and earnings than Western Midstream Partners. Western Midstream Partners is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares Western Midstream Partners and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Western Midstream Partners	27.72%	30.88%	8.09%
Western Midstream Partners Competitors	-455.74%	19.71%	6.77%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

84.8% of Western Midstream Partners shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 30.7% of shares of all “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” companies are owned by institutional investors. 0.0% of Western Midstream Partners shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 15.5% of shares of all “Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Western Midstream Partners rivals beat Western Midstream Partners on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

Western Midstream Partners Company Profile

Western Midstream Partners, LP is a midstream energy company that provides services to oil and natural gas producers. Its operations include gathering, compressing, treating and processing natural gas, as well as gathering, stabilizing and transporting crude oil. The partnership also gathers, transports and disposes of produced water. Western Midstream owns and operates a network of pipelines, processing plants and other infrastructure, with operations focused primarily on the Delaware Basin in Texas and New Mexico and the DJ Basin in Colorado.