Petroleum Corp /De/ Occidental Sells 5,100,000 Shares of Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES) Stock

Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES) major shareholder Petroleum Corp /De/ Occidental sold 5,100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total value of $127,500,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 185,181,578 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,629,539,450. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Large shareholders that own more than 10% of a company’s shares are required to disclose their transactions with the SEC.

Western Midstream Partners Trading Up 1.0 %

NYSE:WES opened at $26.28 on Friday. Western Midstream Partners, LP has a fifty-two week low of $23.24 and a fifty-two week high of $29.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.26, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.11 billion, a PE ratio of 9.84 and a beta of 2.76. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $27.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $26.58.

Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 8th. The pipeline company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.65 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $738.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $795.73 million. Western Midstream Partners had a net margin of 34.08% and a return on equity of 34.41%. The company’s revenue was down 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.74 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Western Midstream Partners, LP will post 2.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Midstream Partners Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 31st were issued a $0.5625 dividend. This represents a $2.25 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 28th. Western Midstream Partners’s payout ratio is presently 84.27%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Mizuho cut their price objective on Western Midstream Partners from $35.00 to $34.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Western Midstream Partners from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $31.00 to $29.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 9th. Wolfe Research cut Western Midstream Partners from a “peer perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $25.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, July 12th. Raymond James cut their price objective on Western Midstream Partners from $34.00 to $32.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 21st. Finally, Citigroup cut their price objective on Western Midstream Partners from $32.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $30.60.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Midstream Partners

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WES. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC bought a new stake in Western Midstream Partners in the 1st quarter valued at $27,000. Spire Wealth Management increased its position in Western Midstream Partners by 893.3% during the 1st quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 1,033 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 929 shares during the period. Retirement Group LLC increased its position in Western Midstream Partners by 52.4% during the 2nd quarter. Retirement Group LLC now owns 1,105 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 380 shares during the period. Money Concepts Capital Corp bought a new position in Western Midstream Partners during the 4th quarter worth $46,000. Finally, IFP Advisors Inc increased its position in Western Midstream Partners by 57.6% during the 2nd quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 3,456 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $92,000 after buying an additional 1,263 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 42.02% of the company’s stock.

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.