The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) Receives $39.42 Average PT from Brokerages

Shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB - Get Free Report) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the thirteen ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have given a hold recommendation and five have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $39.42.

Several research analysts recently weighed in on WMB shares. CIBC increased their price objective on Williams Companies from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. Wolfe Research reiterated an "underperform" rating and issued a $34.00 price objective on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Truist Financial raised their price target on Williams Companies from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Williams Companies from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on Williams Companies from $43.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Debbie L. Pickle sold 38,200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.61, for a total value of $1,513,102.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 60,410 shares in the company, valued at $2,392,840.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.44% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Williams Companies

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. SVB Wealth LLC raised its stake in Williams Companies by 14.9% in the first quarter. SVB Wealth LLC now owns 28,425 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $1,108,000 after buying an additional 3,690 shares in the last quarter. BOKF NA raised its stake in Williams Companies by 12.8% in the first quarter. BOKF NA now owns 89,829 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $3,492,000 after buying an additional 10,212 shares in the last quarter. Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in Williams Companies by 44.5% in the first quarter. Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC now owns 25,827 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $1,006,000 after buying an additional 7,951 shares in the last quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. raised its stake in Williams Companies by 0.4% in the first quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 1,634,386 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $63,692,000 after buying an additional 7,314 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LRI Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Williams Companies during the first quarter worth about $81,000. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of WMB stock traded up $0.11 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $40.47. The company had a trading volume of 7,798,040 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,925,494. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a current ratio of 0.52. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $38.37 and a 200-day moving average of $36.25. The company has a market capitalization of $49.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.04, a PEG ratio of 6.13 and a beta of 1.05. Williams Companies has a 12-month low of $28.27 and a 12-month high of $40.71.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $2.77 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.69 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.27% and a net margin of 27.29%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.56 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Williams Companies will post 1.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be paid a $0.475 dividend. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 7th. Williams Companies's payout ratio is currently 79.83%.

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.