Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) Receives $68.29 Average Price Target from Analysts

Shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) have received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty brokerages that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have assigned a hold recommendation, eleven have assigned a buy recommendation and three have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $68.6429.

WMB has been the topic of several recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $71.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $72.00 to $70.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Monday, January 12th. Tudor Pickering raised Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 1st. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on Williams Companies from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th.

Williams Companies Stock Up 3.2%

Shares of WMB opened at $68.45 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.42. Williams Companies has a 52 week low of $51.58 and a 52 week high of $68.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $83.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.29, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.65. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $61.47 and a 200-day moving average of $60.21.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $2.92 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.87 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.74% and a net margin of 20.61%.Williams Companies’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.43 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Williams Companies will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 30th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This is a boost from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.1%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 103.09%.

Insider Transactions at Williams Companies

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.53, for a total transaction of $242,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 302,645 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,319,101.85. This trade represents a 1.30% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In the last three months, insiders have sold 8,000 shares of company stock worth $498,700. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Williams Companies

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of WMB. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 40.9% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 13,680 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $740,000 after acquiring an additional 3,969 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 5.5% during the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 4,635 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $291,000 after purchasing an additional 242 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp grew its stake in Williams Companies by 5.3% during the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 1,764,224 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $110,811,000 after purchasing an additional 88,057 shares during the period. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Williams Companies by 0.7% in the second quarter. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC now owns 79,207 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $4,975,000 after purchasing an additional 582 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its stake in Williams Companies by 105.6% in the second quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,258,552 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $79,050,000 after buying an additional 646,488 shares during the period. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Williams Companies

Williams Companies, Inc (NYSE: WMB) is a U.S.-based energy infrastructure company focused on the midstream segment of the natural gas value chain. The company develops, owns and operates assets that gather, process, transport and store natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGLs). Its operations support the movement of gas from production areas to end users including utilities, power generators, industrial customers and export facilities.

Williams’s product and service offering includes interstate and intrastate pipeline transmission, gas-gathering systems, processing facilities that remove impurities and separate NGLs, storage services and fractionation and transportation of NGL products.