Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH Grows Position in Western Midstream Partners, LP $WES

Key Points

• Fort Washington Investment Advisors increased its stake in Western Midstream Partners by 45.3% in the first quarter, bringing its holdings to 78,819 shares valued at about $3.25 million.
• Western Midstream posted a strong quarter, with EPS of $0.85 and revenue of $1.12 billion, both ahead of analyst expectations; revenue also rose 22.5% year over year.
• The partnership boosted its quarterly dividend to $0.93 per share, implying an annualized yield of about 8.5%, while analysts currently rate the stock Hold on average with a $45 target price.

Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH raised its stake in shares of Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES - Free Report) by 45.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 78,819 shares of the pipeline company's stock after acquiring an additional 24,573 shares during the period. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH's holdings in Western Midstream Partners were worth $3,245,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of WES. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. bought a new position in Western Midstream Partners in the 3rd quarter valued at $300,257,000. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Western Midstream Partners during the 4th quarter worth $5,455,000. CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT raised its stake in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 21.2% during the 4th quarter. CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT now owns 1,540,900 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $60,866,000 after purchasing an additional 270,000 shares during the period. SageGuard Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Western Midstream Partners in the 4th quarter worth about $1,777,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 10.9% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 9,562,213 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $377,707,000 after buying an additional 936,376 shares during the last quarter. 84.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WES has been the subject of several research reports. Mizuho started coverage on shares of Western Midstream Partners in a research report on Wednesday, June 17th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $48.00 price target for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Western Midstream Partners from $44.00 to $43.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 12th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Western Midstream Partners from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and set a $51.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 10th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Western Midstream Partners from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Western Midstream Partners from $39.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Western Midstream Partners currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $45.00.

Western Midstream Partners Trading Up 1.2%

Shares of Western Midstream Partners stock opened at $43.53 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.23, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 0.69. Western Midstream Partners, LP has a 52-week low of $36.90 and a 52-week high of $48.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.34, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.09. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $43.62 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.89.

Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.01 billion. Western Midstream Partners had a net margin of 29.98% and a return on equity of 33.89%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 22.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.79 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Western Midstream Partners, LP will post 3.44 EPS for the current year.

Western Midstream Partners Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Investors of record on Friday, May 1st were issued a $0.93 dividend. This is a boost from Western Midstream Partners's previous quarterly dividend of $0.91. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 1st. This represents a $3.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.5%. Western Midstream Partners's payout ratio is 121.57%.

About Western Midstream Partners

Western Midstream Partners, LP NYSE: WES is a midstream energy infrastructure company that owns, operates and develops an integrated network of crude oil, natural gas and produced water gathering, processing, transportation and storage assets in the United States. The partnership's primary offerings include pipeline transportation, fractionation services, natural gas liquids (NGL) logistics and produced water handling. Through its fee-based and commodity-based contracts, Western Midstream provides its customers with essential services that support efficient energy production and distribution.

The company's asset portfolio spans key onshore basins, including the Delaware Basin in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico, the San Juan Basin in New Mexico and Colorado, and the Denver-Julesburg Basin in Colorado.

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