56,834 Shares in Western Midstream Partners, LP $WES Purchased by Vestcor Inc

Vestcor Inc bought a new position in shares of Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm bought 56,834 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,245,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in WES. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 6.4% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,525 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $330,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning increased its position in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 17.0% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 6,878 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $266,000 after purchasing an additional 999 shares in the last quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC increased its position in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 6.0% during the 2nd quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC now owns 23,029 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $891,000 after purchasing an additional 1,298 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 39.1% during the 2nd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 25,003 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $968,000 after purchasing an additional 7,032 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Western Midstream Partners during the 2nd quarter worth about $2,172,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WES has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. US Capital Advisors upgraded shares of Western Midstream Partners from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $46.00 target price on shares of Western Midstream Partners and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Western Midstream Partners from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Western Midstream Partners from $41.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Western Midstream Partners from $39.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $44.75.

Western Midstream Partners Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of NYSE:WES opened at $44.43 on Monday. Western Midstream Partners, LP has a 12 month low of $36.90 and a 12 month high of $48.01. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $42.87 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $41.41. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.34. The firm has a market cap of $17.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.52, a P/E/G ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 0.68.

Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.01 billion. Western Midstream Partners had a net margin of 29.98% and a return on equity of 33.89%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.79 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Western Midstream Partners, LP will post 3.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Midstream Partners Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 1st were paid a $0.93 dividend. This is a boost from Western Midstream Partners’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 1st. This represents a $3.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.4%. Western Midstream Partners’s payout ratio is 121.57%.

Insider Activity

In other Western Midstream Partners news, Director Robert G. Phillips bought 1,250 shares of Western Midstream Partners stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 11th. The shares were bought at an average price of $40.19 per share, with a total value of $50,237.50. Following the purchase, the director owned 5,296 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $212,846.24. This trade represents a 30.89% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Western Midstream Partners Profile

Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE: WES) is a midstream energy infrastructure company that owns, operates and develops an integrated network of crude oil, natural gas and produced water gathering, processing, transportation and storage assets in the United States. The partnership’s primary offerings include pipeline transportation, fractionation services, natural gas liquids (NGL) logistics and produced water handling. Through its fee-based and commodity-based contracts, Western Midstream provides its customers with essential services that support efficient energy production and distribution.

The company’s asset portfolio spans key onshore basins, including the Delaware Basin in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico, the San Juan Basin in New Mexico and Colorado, and the Denver-Julesburg Basin in Colorado.