Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the nineteen ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, thirteen have given a buy recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $75.3571.

Several research firms have commented on WMB. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Williams Companies from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Monday, December 29th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $78.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Williams Companies from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of WMB opened at $72.94 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $64.10 and its two-hundred day moving average is $61.37. The company has a market capitalization of $89.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 0.65. Williams Companies has a fifty-two week low of $51.58 and a fifty-two week high of $73.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a current ratio of 0.53.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 10th. The pipeline company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.10 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 17.32% and a net margin of 21.90%.During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.47 EPS. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. Research analysts predict that Williams Companies will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. This is a boost from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 93.46%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.39, for a total transaction of $132,780.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 293,545 shares in the company, valued at $19,488,452.55. This trade represents a 0.68% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.44% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Williams Companies

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WMB. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,963,343 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $8,052,537,000 after purchasing an additional 883,245 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Williams Companies by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 67,981,106 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $4,086,344,000 after buying an additional 1,296,991 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Williams Companies by 15.9% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 48,586,299 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $3,077,942,000 after buying an additional 6,668,950 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in Williams Companies by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 46,053,873 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,768,298,000 after buying an additional 2,100,164 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 11.0% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 33,572,067 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,018,017,000 after acquiring an additional 3,314,851 shares during the last quarter. 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.