This is a contrast between Western Gas Partners LP (NYSE:WES) and Enable Midstream Partners LP (NYSE:ENBL) based on their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, risk, dividends, earnings and valuation. The two companies are Oil & Gas Pipelines and they also compete with each other.

Valuation and Earnings

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Western Gas Partners LP	2.06B	3.70	129.16M	0.85	53.65
Enable Midstream Partners LP	3.29B	2.00	419.00M	0.91	15.02

Table 1 highlights Western Gas Partners LP and Enable Midstream Partners LP’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation. Enable Midstream Partners LP has higher revenue and earnings than Western Gas Partners LP. The business that is more expensive between the two has a higher P/E ratio. Western Gas Partners LP has been trading at a higher P/E ratio than Enable Midstream Partners LP, which means that it is at the moment the more expensive of the two companies.

Profitability

Table 2 shows the return on assets, net margins and return on equity of the two firms.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Western Gas Partners LP	6.27%	3.6%	1.5%
Enable Midstream Partners LP	12.74%	5.8%	3.6%

Volatility and Risk

Western Gas Partners LP’s current beta is 1.27 and it happens to be 27.00% more volatile than Standard and Poor’s 500. Enable Midstream Partners LP on the other hand, has 1.63 beta which makes it 63.00% more volatile compared to Standard and Poor’s 500.

Liquidity

Western Gas Partners LP’s Current Ratio and Quick Ratio are 0.7 and 0.7 respectively. The Current Ratio and Quick Ratio of its competitor Enable Midstream Partners LP are 0.3 and 0.3 respectively. Western Gas Partners LP therefore has a better chance of paying off short and long-term obligations compared to Enable Midstream Partners LP.

Dividends

Western Gas Partners LP pays out an annual dividend of $3.77 per share while its dividend yield is 7.8%. Enable Midstream Partners LP also pays out annual dividends at $1.27 per share and at a 8.4% dividend yield.

Analyst Recommendations

The Recommendations and Ratings for Western Gas Partners LP and Enable Midstream Partners LP are featured in the next table.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Western Gas Partners LP	0	5	1	2.17
Enable Midstream Partners LP	0	3	0	2.00

Western Gas Partners LP has a consensus price target of $48.33, and a -1.89% downside potential. Competitively the consensus price target of Enable Midstream Partners LP is $18.33, which is potential 20.75% upside. Based on the data given earlier, Enable Midstream Partners LP is looking more favorable than Western Gas Partners LP, analysts belief.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

Roughly 64.6% of Western Gas Partners LP shares are owned by institutional investors while 20% of Enable Midstream Partners LP are owned by institutional investors. Insiders owned roughly 34.23% of Western Gas Partners LP’s shares. Comparatively, Enable Midstream Partners LP has 54% of it’s share owned by insiders.

Performance

In this table we show the Week, Month, Quarter, Half Year, Year and YTD Performance of both pretenders.

	Performance (W)	Performance (M)	Performance (Q)	Performance (HY)	Performance (Y)	Performance (YTD)
Western Gas Partners LP	2.14%	-2.95%	-10.01%	-13.13%	-1.5%	-5.61%
Enable Midstream Partners LP	2.1%	-9.14%	-12.47%	-19.98%	-8.1%	-4.22%

For the past year Western Gas Partners LP’s stock price has bigger decline than Enable Midstream Partners LP.

Summary

On 11 of the 17 factors Enable Midstream Partners LP beats Western Gas Partners LP.

Western Gas Partners, LP acquires, develops, owns, and operates midstream energy assets in the Rocky Mountains, North-central Pennsylvania, and Texas. It is involved in gathering, processing, compressing, treating, and transporting natural gas, condensate, natural gas liquids, and crude oil. Western Gas Holdings, LLC serves as the general partner of Western Gas Partners, LP. The company was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas.

Enable Midstream Partners, LP owns, operates, and develops midstream energy infrastructure assets in the United States. It operates in two segments, Gathering and Processing, and Transportation and Storage. The Gathering and Processing segment provides natural gas gathering, processing, and fractionation services in the Anadarko, Arkoma, and Ark-La-Tex basins, as well as crude oil gathering services in the Bakken Shale formation of the Williston Basin for its producer customers. The Transportation and Storage segment offers interstate and intrastate natural gas pipeline transportation and storage services to natural gas producers, utilities, and industrial customers. The companyÂ’s natural gas gathering and processing assets are located in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana; crude oil gathering assets are located in North Dakota; and natural gas transportation and storage assets extend from western Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle to Louisiana, from Louisiana to Illinois, in Oklahoma, and from Louisiana to Alabama. As of December 31, 2016, its portfolio of midstream energy infrastructure assets included approximately 12,900 miles of gathering pipelines; 14 processing plants with 2.5 billion cubic feet per day of processing capacity; approximately 7,800 miles of interstate pipelines; approximately 2,200 miles of intrastate pipelines; and 8 natural gas storage facilities with 85.0 billion cubic feet of storage capacity. The company is based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Enable Midstream Partners, LP is a subsidiary of CenterPoint Energy, Inc.