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

Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 24th,NASDAQ Dividends reports. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.26%. The ex-dividend date 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% meaning 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 Trading Down 0.1 %

NYSE:WES traded down $0.04 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $42.39. 807,183 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,087,906. Western Midstream Partners has a fifty-two week low of $27.84 and a fifty-two week high of $43.33. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.81, a PEG ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 2.90. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $39.49 and a 200-day simple moving average of $39.12.

Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 46.02% and a net margin of 42.99%. Western Midstream Partners’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.70 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Western Midstream Partners will post 4.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WES has been the subject of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley cut 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. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $41.00 price target on shares of Western Midstream Partners in a report on Monday, December 9th. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Western Midstream Partners in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $37.00 price objective on the stock. 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. Finally, UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Western Midstream Partners from $40.00 to $37.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus 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.