Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) Downgraded by Morgan Stanley to “Equal Weight”

Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) was downgraded by research analysts at Morgan Stanley from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have a $42.00 price objective on the pipeline company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 6.14% from the stock’s previous close.

WES has been the subject of several other reports. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Western Midstream Partners from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Western Midstream Partners from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Western Midstream Partners from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 21st. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Western Midstream Partners from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Western Midstream Partners presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $35.25.

Western Midstream Partners Price Performance

WES opened at $39.57 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $39.37 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.50. The company has a current ratio of 1.68, a quick ratio of 1.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.08. Western Midstream Partners has a 1 year low of $25.71 and a 1 year high of $42.80. The stock has a market cap of $15.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.15, a PEG ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 2.87.

Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The pipeline company reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.09. Western Midstream Partners had a return on equity of 47.19% and a net margin of 44.01%. The business had revenue of $905.63 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $904.94 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.64 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 22.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Western Midstream Partners will post 4.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Petroleum Corp /De/ Occidental sold 19,500,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.75, for a total value of $697,125,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 165,681,578 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,923,116,413.50. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Principal Securities Inc. acquired a new position in Western Midstream Partners in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $141,000. Jump Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Western Midstream Partners in the fourth quarter valued at $483,000. Wells Fargo & Company MN lifted its position in Western Midstream Partners by 7.6% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 1,260,436 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $36,880,000 after purchasing an additional 89,444 shares during the period. Allianz Asset Management GmbH boosted its stake in Western Midstream Partners by 28.6% during the fourth quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 708,256 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $20,724,000 after buying an additional 157,700 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp bought a new stake in Western Midstream Partners in the 4th quarter valued at $248,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 42.94% of the company’s stock.

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.