StockNews.com Begins Coverage on Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB)

Posted by ABMN Staff on Mar 19th, 2023

StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB – Get Rating) in a research note released on Thursday morning. The brokerage issued a hold rating on the pipeline company’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Argus lowered shares of Williams Companies from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Tuesday, February 28th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a report on Monday, January 9th. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $40.00 to $39.00 in a report on Friday, December 16th. Raymond James lowered their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a strong-buy rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 28th. Finally, Citigroup started coverage on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Thursday, December 8th. They issued a neutral rating and a $36.00 target price on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $36.90.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of NYSE WMB opened at $28.30 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $31.20 and its 200-day moving average price is $31.96. Williams Companies has a 1-year low of $28.06 and a 1-year high of $37.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $34.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.85, a P/E/G ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 20th. The pipeline company reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.06. Williams Companies had a net margin of 18.69% and a return on equity of 16.02%. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.18 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.39 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Williams Companies will post 1.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 13th will be paid a $0.4475 dividend. This is a positive change from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 10th. This represents a $1.79 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.33%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 106.55%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Williams Companies

In other news, Director William H. Spence acquired 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 14th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $29.61 per share, for a total transaction of $148,050.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 48,521 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,436,706.81. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.43% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Mather Group LLC. bought a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $761,000. Great Lakes Retirement Inc. bought a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $5,401,000. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. grew its position in shares of Williams Companies by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 696,783 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $22,922,000 after acquiring an additional 3,931 shares during the period. OLD Mission Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $287,000. Finally, Voya Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Williams Companies by 61.8% in the 4th quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 1,264,400 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $41,599,000 after buying an additional 483,078 shares during the period. 85.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Williams Companies

(Get Rating)

The Williams Cos., Inc operates as an energy infrastructure company, which explores, produces, transports, sells and processes natural gas and petroleum products. It operates through the following segments: Transmission and Gulf of Mexico, Northeast G&P, and West. The Transmission and Gulf of Mexico segment consists of interstate natural gas pipelines, the Transco and Northwest Pipelines, as well as natural gas gathering and processing and crude oil production handling and transportation assets in the Gulf Coast region.