Western Midstream Partners enters the week with a notable split between fresh analyst optimism and a Street that remains broadly neutral — while short sellers quietly added positions and the lending market swung to record-easy conditions.
The most striking development is Morgan Stanley's move this week. The firm upgraded WES to Equal-Weight from Underweight and announced a $51 price target — a level roughly 17% above Tuesday's close of $43.50. That's a meaningful change of direction from a bellwether house that had been below consensus, and it shifts the analyst landscape in a way the other recent moves do not. The broader Street, however, stays cautious: the consensus sits at Hold, with nine analysts there and none at Sell. UBS nudged its target to $45 from $40 in late May while keeping a Neutral rating, and Stifel moved to Buy with a $46 target in early May — but those remain outliers in a mostly flat-to-neutral pack. The mean target cluster of $42–$51 implies the upside case depends almost entirely on how much weight you give the Morgan Stanley move.
The valuation picture offers mild support to the bulls. The EV/EBITDA multiple has eased over the past month, down roughly 0.7 turns to 8.8x — a modest compression that makes the unit look slightly cheaper than it did heading into the May earnings cycle. The trailing PE is near 12x. Factor scores are mixed: the dividend score ranks in the 99th percentile against the broader universe, and analyst recommendation momentum — a measure of how much consensus has shifted — ranks in the 98th percentile, reflecting exactly the kind of upgrade activity seen this week. Short-score rank is in the 28th percentile, meaning the ORTEX composite puts WES firmly in the lower-short-pressure camp.
The lending market tells a story of rapidly loosening conditions. Availability has expanded sharply — now running at over 1,150% of short interest, meaning there are more than eleven shares available to borrow for every share currently borrowed. A week ago that ratio was around 856%. This is among the most relaxed borrow environments the stock has seen in recent months, well above the 52-week tightest reading of roughly 28%. Cost to borrow jumped on Tuesday to 0.45% from a very low 0.13% the previous session, though that remains trivially cheap in absolute terms. Short interest itself edged higher — up about 9% on the week to 1.93% of the free float, a low absolute level, though it does reverse a multi-week drift lower from the 2.1% range seen in mid-May. The direction is worth noting, but the level is not alarming.
Options positioning adds a mildly constructive tone. The put/call ratio is running at 0.44, slightly below its 20-day average of 0.47 — not a dramatic skew, but tilted toward calls. The z-score is close to zero, so there's no outsized hedging signal in either direction. The 52-week PCR range is wide (0.25 to 1.06), and the current reading is toward the lower, more bullish end of that band. The overall positioning picture is therefore one of moderate optimism rather than any clear defensiveness.
Earnings provide one more reference point. WES has posted positive one-day returns in each of the past three prints — moves of +3.3%, +5.4%, and +1.2% on the day, with five-day follow-throughs ranging from +6% to +11%. The next event is August 5. That history of earnings-day strength is consistent with a market that has generally rewarded the stock for delivery — useful context as the Morgan Stanley upgrade puts fresh eyes on whether current pricing already reflects that pattern.
The week to watch is whether other neutral-rated analysts follow Morgan Stanley's direction, and whether the modest short-interest rebuild accelerates or fades as units trade near the lower end of the Street's target band.
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