Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.88

Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:WES) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 24th,NASDAQ Dividends reports. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a dividend of 0.875 per share by the pipeline company on Friday, February 14th. This represents a $3.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 3rd.

Western Midstream Partners has increased its dividend payment by an average of 36.2% per year over the last three years. Western Midstream Partners has a payout ratio of 92.8% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings tumble. Equities research analysts expect Western Midstream Partners to earn $3.48 per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $3.50 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 100.6%.

Western Midstream Partners Stock Performance

Shares of WES stock opened at $42.39 on Friday. Western Midstream Partners has a 12 month low of $27.84 and a 12 month high of $43.33. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $39.67 and its 200-day simple moving average is $39.15. The firm has a market cap of $16.13 billion, a PE ratio of 10.81, a P/E/G ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 2.90. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.05.

Western Midstream Partners (NYSE:WES) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 company had revenue of $883.36 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $924.83 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.70 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Western Midstream Partners will post 4.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WES has been the topic of several research reports. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Western Midstream Partners from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $42.00 to $40.00 in a report on Friday, October 25th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $41.00 price target on shares of Western Midstream Partners in a research note on Monday, December 9th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Western Midstream Partners from $40.00 to $37.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 15th. StockNews.com downgraded Western Midstream Partners from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Bank of America assumed coverage on Western Midstream Partners in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $37.00 target price on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $37.88.

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.