Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) Given Average Recommendation of "Buy" by Analysts

Key Points

• Analysts remain bullish on Williams Companies, with a consensus rating of “Buy” from 20 analysts and an average 12-month price target of $82.40, above the stock’s recent trading level.
• Recent analyst updates were mostly positive, including higher price targets from Scotiabank, Stifel Nicolaus, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley, though one firm upgraded the stock only to hold.
• The company posted mixed quarterly results: EPS beat expectations at $0.73, but revenue came in below estimates. Williams also maintained FY2026 EPS guidance of $2.20 to $2.38 and announced a quarterly dividend of $0.525 per share.

Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB - Get Free Report) has been assigned a consensus rating of "Buy" from the twenty analysts that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, fourteen have assigned a buy recommendation and four have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $82.40.

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $78.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Williams Companies from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Sunday, April 5th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th.

Key Stories Impacting Williams Companies

Here are the key news stories impacting Williams Companies this week:

• Positive Sentiment: US Capital Advisors raised Williams Companies’ FY2026 EPS estimate to $2.31 and Q2 2026 EPS to $0.49, signaling slightly better near-term earnings expectations.
• Neutral Sentiment: Broader midstream commentary points to stronger gas demand and LNG-related growth, which supports the long-term outlook for Williams Companies. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: US Capital Advisors cut several forward EPS estimates for Williams Companies, including FY2027 and FY2028, which may pressure valuation expectations.
• Negative Sentiment: Coverage noting that WMB is down since its last earnings report suggests investors remain focused on softer revenue trends and reduced confidence in the post-earnings outlook. Article Title

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of WMB opened at $71.83 on Thursday. Williams Companies has a fifty-two week low of $55.82 and a fifty-two week high of $80.07. The company has a market capitalization of $87.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 0.58. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $73.63 and a 200-day simple moving average of $68.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.83.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The pipeline company reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.10. Williams Companies had a net margin of 23.39% and a return on equity of 18.34%. The business had revenue of $3.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.60 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Williams Companies will post 2.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 29th. Investors of record on Friday, June 12th will be given a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 12th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.9%. Williams Companies's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 92.11%.

Insider Transactions at Williams Companies

In other Williams Companies news, COO Larry C. Larsen sold 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.48, for a total value of $917,760.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 98,219 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,511,789.12. This trade represents a 10.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Payvand Fazel sold 2,898 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.15, for a total transaction of $211,988.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 31,766 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,323,682.90. This trade represents a 8.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 78,762 shares of company stock valued at $5,937,632 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,963,343 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $8,052,537,000 after acquiring an additional 883,245 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 67,981,106 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $4,086,344,000 after acquiring an additional 1,296,991 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $3,077,942,000 after acquiring an additional 6,668,950 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $2,768,298,000 after acquiring an additional 2,100,164 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 11.0% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.

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