Holderness Investments Co. Buys New Shares in Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES)

Holderness Investments Co. purchased a new position in Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 7,960 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $316,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC bought a new position in Western Midstream Partners in the first quarter worth $29,000. American National Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 34.5% during the 1st quarter. American National Bank now owns 1,190 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 305 shares during the period. Retirement Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 40.2% during the 1st quarter. Retirement Group LLC now owns 1,591 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $57,000 after acquiring an additional 456 shares in the last quarter. Triad Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in Western Midstream Partners in the second quarter valued at about $78,000. Finally, Mather Group LLC. acquired a new position in Western Midstream Partners in the first quarter worth about $82,000. Institutional investors own 42.94% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Midstream Partners

In related news, major shareholder Petroleum Corp /De/ Occidental sold 19,500,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 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 SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Western Midstream Partners Price Performance

Shares of WES stock opened at $38.75 on Monday. Western Midstream Partners, LP has a 1 year low of $26.14 and a 1 year high of $42.80. The company has a current ratio of 1.68, a quick ratio of 1.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.08. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $39.21 and its 200-day moving average is $37.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.92, a PEG ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 2.87.

Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The pipeline company reported $0.97 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $905.63 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $904.94 million. Western Midstream Partners had a return on equity of 47.19% and a net margin of 44.01%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 22.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.64 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Western Midstream Partners, LP will post 4.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Midstream Partners Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 1st were issued a dividend of $0.875 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 1st. This represents a $3.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.03%. Western Midstream Partners’s dividend payout ratio is currently 98.59%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WES has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Western Midstream Partners from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective 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. Morgan Stanley cut Western Midstream Partners from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $42.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Monday, September 16th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Western Midstream Partners from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Western Midstream Partners from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.75.

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.