Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) Posts Earnings Results, Misses Expectations By $0.08 EPS

Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The pipeline company reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by ($0.08), Briefing.com reports. Western Midstream Partners had a net margin of 44.01% and a return on equity of 47.19%. The company had revenue of $883.36 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $924.83 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.70 earnings per share. Western Midstream Partners’s revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis.

Western Midstream Partners Stock Performance

NYSE:WES traded down $1.17 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $37.36. 1,996,077 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,212,854. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.93, a P/E/G ratio of 0.69 and a beta of 2.88. The company has a 50-day moving average of $38.54 and a 200 day moving average of $38.51. The company has a quick ratio of 1.68, a current ratio of 1.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.08. Western Midstream Partners has a 1-year low of $26.81 and a 1-year high of $42.80.

Western Midstream Partners Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, November 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.875 per share. This represents a $3.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.37%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 1st. Western Midstream Partners’s dividend payout ratio is currently 90.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Western Midstream Partners news, major shareholder Petroleum Corp /De/ Occidental sold 19,500,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.75, for a total transaction of $697,125,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 165,681,578 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,923,116,413.50. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.04% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on WES. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Western Midstream Partners from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Western Midstream Partners from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Western Midstream Partners from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Western Midstream Partners from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $42.00 to $40.00 in a report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Western Midstream Partners in a report on Thursday, October 17th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $37.00 price target for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $38.13.

Western Midstream Partners Company 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.