The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the seventeen ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $52.07.

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on WMB shares. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. CIBC lifted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $55.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th.

Williams Companies Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE:WMB opened at $54.60 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $54.98 and a 200 day simple moving average of $48.04. Williams Companies has a 52 week low of $32.65 and a 52 week high of $60.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a current ratio of 0.57. The company has a market cap of $66.56 billion, a PE ratio of 23.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.60 and a beta of 1.05.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.52 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 15.89% and a net margin of 27.36%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.45 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Williams Companies will post 1.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.475 per share. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is currently 80.17%.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.29, for a total value of $90,580.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 304,200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,777,218. This represents a 0.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 7,951 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.30, for a total transaction of $447,641.30. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 25,858 shares in the company, valued at $1,455,805.40. This trade represents a 23.52 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Williams Companies

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 2.3% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,576,165 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $71,952,000 after buying an additional 35,981 shares during the period. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,482,000. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 16.4% in the 3rd quarter. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. now owns 77,900 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $3,556,000 after acquiring an additional 11,000 shares during the period. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp increased its position in shares of Williams Companies by 0.7% during the third quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 82,301 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $3,756,000 after purchasing an additional 552 shares during the period. Finally, Synovus Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 48.8% in the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 19,533 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $892,000 after purchasing an additional 6,409 shares in the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Williams Companies

The Williams Companies, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an energy infrastructure company primarily in the United States. It operates through Transmission & Gulf of Mexico, Northeast G&P, West, and Gas & NGL Marketing Services segments. The Transmission & Gulf of Mexico segment comprises natural gas pipelines; Transco, Northwest pipeline, MountainWest, and related natural gas storage facilities; and natural gas gathering and processing, and crude oil production handling and transportation assets in the Gulf Coast region.