Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. Buys New Position in Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES)

Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 45,615 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,812,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in WES. Principal Securities Inc. bought a new position in shares of Western Midstream Partners during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $141,000. Jump Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Western Midstream Partners during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $483,000. Wells Fargo & Company MN raised its holdings in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 7.6% during the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 1,260,436 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $36,880,000 after acquiring an additional 89,444 shares in the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH raised its holdings in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 28.6% during the fourth quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 708,256 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $20,724,000 after acquiring an additional 157,700 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp purchased a new stake in Western Midstream Partners in the fourth quarter worth $248,000. Institutional investors own 42.94% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Western Midstream Partners

In related news, major shareholder Petroleum Corp /De/ Occidental sold 19,500,000 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 165,681,578 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,923,116,413.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Western Midstream Partners Trading Up 0.6 %

NYSE WES opened at $39.79 on Tuesday. Western Midstream Partners, LP has a 12 month low of $25.71 and a 12 month high of $42.80. The stock has a market cap of $15.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.21, a P/E/G ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 2.87. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $39.37 and its 200-day moving average price is $37.50. The company has a current ratio of 1.68, a quick ratio of 1.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.08.

Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The pipeline company reported $0.97 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 company had revenue of $905.63 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $904.94 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.64 earnings per share. Western Midstream Partners’s revenue was up 22.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Western Midstream Partners, LP will post 4.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Midstream Partners Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 1st were given a dividend of $0.875 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 1st. This represents a $3.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.80%. Western Midstream Partners’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 98.59%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WES has been the topic of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley cut Western Midstream Partners from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $42.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday. StockNews.com raised Western Midstream Partners from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Western Midstream Partners from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 21st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Western Midstream Partners from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Western Midstream Partners from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Western Midstream Partners presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $35.25.

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.