Western Midstream Partners, LP Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.88 (NYSE:WES)

Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 24th,NASDAQ Dividends reports. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd will be given a dividend of 0.875 per share by the pipeline company on Friday, February 14th. This represents a $3.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 3rd.

Western Midstream Partners has increased its dividend by an average of 36.2% annually over the last three years. Western Midstream Partners has a payout ratio of 92.8% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings decline. Equities research analysts expect Western Midstream Partners to earn $3.48 per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $3.50 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 100.6%.

Western Midstream Partners Stock Performance

Shares of WES traded down $0.04 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $42.39. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 807,183 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,087,906. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.05. Western Midstream Partners has a 1-year low of $27.84 and a 1-year high of $43.33. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $39.49 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $39.12. The stock has a market cap of $16.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.81, a PEG ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 2.90.

Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.83 by ($0.09). The business had revenue of $883.36 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $924.83 million. Western Midstream Partners had a net margin of 42.99% and a return on equity of 46.02%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.70 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Western Midstream Partners will post 4.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WES has been the subject of several research reports. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Western Midstream Partners from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Bank of America assumed coverage on Western Midstream Partners in a report on Thursday, October 17th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $37.00 price target for the company. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $41.00 price objective on shares of Western Midstream Partners in a report on Monday, December 9th. UBS Group dropped their target price on Western Midstream Partners from $40.00 to $37.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Western Midstream Partners from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $42.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $37.88.

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.