Hennessy Advisors Inc. Sells 3,000 Shares of Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES)

Hennessy Advisors Inc. reduced its stake in Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES) by 2.5% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 117,700 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 3,000 shares during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Western Midstream Partners were worth $4,676,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Prossimo Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Western Midstream Partners during the second quarter worth about $242,000. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. raised its position in Western Midstream Partners by 3.3% during the 2nd quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 399,221 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $15,861,000 after purchasing an additional 12,704 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates lifted its holdings in Western Midstream Partners by 30.2% in the 2nd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 103,883 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $4,127,000 after buying an additional 24,072 shares during the period. CFM Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Western Midstream Partners by 72.1% during the second quarter. CFM Wealth Partners LLC now owns 35,040 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,392,000 after buying an additional 14,680 shares during the period. Finally, Triad Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in Western Midstream Partners in the second quarter valued at $78,000. Institutional investors own 42.94% of the company’s stock.

Western Midstream Partners Price Performance

WES opened at $38.28 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $39.76 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $36.50. Western Midstream Partners, LP has a 52-week low of $25.69 and a 52-week high of $42.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.76, a P/E/G ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 2.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 1.68 and a current ratio of 1.68.

Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The pipeline company reported $0.97 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $905.63 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $904.94 million. Western Midstream Partners had a net margin of 44.01% and a return on equity of 47.19%. The firm’s revenue was up 22.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.64 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Western Midstream Partners, LP will post 4.08 EPS for the current year.

Western Midstream Partners Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 1st were paid a dividend of $0.875 per share. This represents a $3.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 1st. Western Midstream Partners’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 98.59%.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on WES shares. Stifel Nicolaus raised 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. Mizuho increased their price objective on Western Midstream Partners from $34.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 7th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Western Midstream Partners from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 21st. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Western Midstream Partners from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $33.13.

Western Midstream Partners 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.