Western Midstream Partners, LP (WES) To Go Ex-Dividend on April 30th

Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 18th, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be paid a dividend of 0.875 per share by the pipeline company on Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $3.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 30th. This is an increase from Western Midstream Partners’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.58.

Western Midstream Partners has increased its dividend payment by an average of 17.1% per year over the last three years. Western Midstream Partners has a payout ratio of 100.3% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Analysts expect Western Midstream Partners to earn $3.52 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.50 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 99.4%.

Western Midstream Partners Stock Down 0.0 %

Shares of Western Midstream Partners stock opened at $35.87 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.80 and a beta of 2.83. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.40. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $34.50 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $30.40. Western Midstream Partners has a 12-month low of $24.89 and a 12-month high of $36.79.

Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The pipeline company reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $858.21 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $850.23 million. Western Midstream Partners had a return on equity of 33.58% and a net margin of 32.72%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.85 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Western Midstream Partners will post 3.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Western Midstream Partners

In other news, Director Lisa A. Stewart purchased 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $34.87 per share, for a total transaction of $87,175.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 30,730 shares in the company, valued at $1,071,555.10. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, Director Lisa A. Stewart purchased 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $34.87 per share, for a total transaction of $87,175.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 30,730 shares in the company, valued at $1,071,555.10. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Kenneth F. Owen purchased 7,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $33.96 per share, for a total transaction of $237,720.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 32,730 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,111,510.80. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.04% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on WES. Wolfe Research raised Western Midstream Partners from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Citigroup cut Western Midstream Partners from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $34.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Raymond James restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Western Midstream Partners in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Western Midstream Partners from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $30.64.

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.