Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP Buys 1,184,597 Shares of Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES)

Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP grew its stake in Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES) by 23.5% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 6,228,448 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,184,597 shares during the period. Western Midstream Partners accounts for 6.1% of Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP’s holdings, making the stock its 8th largest position. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP’s holdings in Western Midstream Partners were worth $238,300,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Blackstone Inc. boosted its holdings in Western Midstream Partners by 2.0% in the first quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 12,980,724 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $461,465,000 after acquiring an additional 259,928 shares during the last quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC now owns 6,711,006 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $266,628,000 after acquiring an additional 37,259 shares during the last quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON lifted its stake in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 2,953,510 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $104,997,000 after purchasing an additional 77,942 shares during the period. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 1,809,814 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $64,339,000 after purchasing an additional 24,377 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fractal Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 5.4% during the third quarter. Fractal Investments LLC now owns 1,465,706 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $56,078,000 after purchasing an additional 75,145 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 42.94% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on WES shares. StockNews.com lowered Western Midstream Partners from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Western Midstream Partners from $40.00 to $37.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Bank of America began coverage on Western Midstream Partners in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $37.00 target price for the company. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Western Midstream Partners from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Western Midstream Partners from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $42.00 to $40.00 in a report on Friday, October 25th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $37.88.

Western Midstream Partners Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE WES opened at $38.20 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.54 billion, a PE ratio of 9.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 2.88. Western Midstream Partners, LP has a 52 week low of $26.81 and a 52 week high of $42.80. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $38.38 and a 200 day moving average price of $38.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.05, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.11.

Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.83 by ($0.09). The firm had revenue of $883.36 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $924.83 million. Western Midstream Partners had a net margin of 42.99% and a return on equity of 46.02%. The business’s revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.70 EPS. Analysts predict that Western Midstream Partners, LP will post 4.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Midstream Partners Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, November 1st were issued a dividend of $0.875 per share. This represents a $3.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.16%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 1st. Western Midstream Partners’s payout ratio is presently 89.29%.

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.