Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC Increases Stake in Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES)

Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES - Free Report) by 30.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 461,365 shares of the pipeline company's stock after buying an additional 108,021 shares during the period. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC owned about 0.12% of Western Midstream Partners worth $18,898,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in Western Midstream Partners by 6.6% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 22,809,161 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $876,556,000 after buying an additional 1,406,362 shares during the last quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. raised its position in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. now owns 8,064,089 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $309,903,000 after acquiring an additional 159,016 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its stake in Western Midstream Partners by 23.1% during the fourth quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 7,273,186 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $279,509,000 after purchasing an additional 1,366,341 shares during the last quarter. Eagle Global Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Western Midstream Partners by 23.2% in the fourth quarter. Eagle Global Advisors LLC now owns 2,434,080 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $93,542,000 after purchasing an additional 458,111 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BROOKFIELD Corp ON increased its stake in Western Midstream Partners by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 1,683,790 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $64,708,000 after purchasing an additional 15,978 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.82% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have weighed in on WES shares. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of Western Midstream Partners from $45.00 to $44.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Western Midstream Partners from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, March 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $39.83.

Western Midstream Partners Stock Performance

NYSE WES traded down $0.32 on Friday, reaching $38.78. The stock had a trading volume of 609,411 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,227,005. The stock has a market cap of $14.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.57 and a beta of 1.08. Western Midstream Partners, LP has a 12-month low of $33.60 and a 12-month high of $43.33. The business's 50-day moving average price is $38.19 and its 200 day moving average price is $39.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 1.18.

Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The pipeline company reported $0.79 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.83 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $917.12 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $926.55 million. Western Midstream Partners had a net margin of 35.79% and a return on equity of 38.52%. The business's revenue was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.47 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Western Midstream Partners, LP will post 4.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Midstream Partners Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 2nd were paid a $0.91 dividend. This is an increase from Western Midstream Partners's previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.39%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 2nd. Western Midstream Partners's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 108.66%.

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.