Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP Raises Holdings in Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES)

Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES) by 23.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,228,448 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 1,184,597 shares during the period. Western Midstream Partners makes up 6.1% of Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP owned about 1.64% of Western Midstream Partners worth $238,300,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Fractal Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Western Midstream Partners by 5.4% during the third quarter. Fractal Investments LLC now owns 1,465,706 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $56,078,000 after buying an additional 75,145 shares in the last quarter. Highland Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Western Midstream Partners in the 2nd quarter valued at $516,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Western Midstream Partners by 9,082.5% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 18,365 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $703,000 after purchasing an additional 18,165 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates increased its position in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 30.2% in the second quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 103,883 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $4,127,000 after acquiring an additional 24,072 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT raised its holdings in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 10.1% during the third quarter. CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT now owns 1,315,472 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $50,330,000 after acquiring an additional 120,202 shares during the period. 42.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WES has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. 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. Morgan Stanley lowered Western Midstream Partners from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $42.00 to $40.00 in a research report on Friday, October 25th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Western Midstream Partners from $40.00 to $37.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Western Midstream Partners from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Western Midstream Partners in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $37.00 price objective on the stock. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $37.88.

Western Midstream Partners Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of WES stock opened at $38.20 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $38.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.60. Western Midstream Partners, LP has a twelve month low of $26.81 and a twelve month high of $42.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.05, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.11. The company has a market capitalization of $14.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.74, a PEG ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 2.88.

Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.83 by ($0.09). Western Midstream Partners had a return on equity of 46.02% and a net margin of 42.99%. The firm had revenue of $883.36 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $924.83 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.70 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Western Midstream Partners, LP will post 4.13 EPS for the current year.

Western Midstream Partners Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, November 1st were paid a $0.875 dividend. This represents a $3.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.16%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 1st. Western Midstream Partners’s payout ratio is presently 89.29%.

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.