Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) Receives Average Rating of "Buy" from Analysts

Key Points

• Williams Companies has a consensus analyst rating of "Buy" from 20 brokerages, with 14 buy ratings and 4 strong buy ratings. The average 1-year price target is $82.40, above the stock’s recent trading level.
• The company recently reported Q1 earnings of $0.73 per share, beating estimates of $0.63, though revenue of $3.03 billion came in below expectations. Williams also issued FY 2026 EPS guidance of 2.200–2.380.
• Williams announced a quarterly dividend of $0.525 per share, equal to an annualized yield of 2.7%. Insider selling has also been notable, with executives selling shares over the past few months.

Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB - Get Free Report) has received a consensus rating of "Buy" from the twenty brokerages that are covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $82.40.

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $82.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Williams Companies from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $82.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Williams Companies from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Sunday, April 5th.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

NYSE:WMB opened at $78.00 on Monday. The company's 50-day moving average price is $73.82 and its 200-day moving average price is $69.84. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99. The company has a market cap of $95.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.21, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 0.58. Williams Companies has a twelve month low of $55.82 and a twelve month high of $80.07.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly 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. The firm had revenue of $3.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.28 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 23.39% and a return on equity of 18.34%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.60 earnings per share. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Williams Companies will post 2.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 12th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.7%. Williams Companies's payout ratio is 92.11%.

Insider Activity

In other Williams Companies news, COO Larry C. Larsen sold 12,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.48, for a total transaction of $917,760.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 98,219 shares in the company, valued at $7,511,789.12. This trade represents a 10.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.35, for a total transaction of $152,700.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 287,159 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $21,924,589.65. This represents a 0.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 68,500 shares of company stock valued at $5,177,835 over the last three months. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Williams Companies

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Mill Creek Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Williams Companies by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Mill Creek Capital Advisors LLC now owns 6,000 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $361,000 after acquiring an additional 141 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in shares of Williams Companies by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 15,309 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $920,000 after acquiring an additional 148 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Williams Companies by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 12,646 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $760,000 after acquiring an additional 149 shares during the last quarter. Great Diamond Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Williams Companies by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Great Diamond Partners LLC now owns 34,870 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $2,096,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Horizon Corp increased its position in shares of Williams Companies by 3.7% during the first quarter. First Horizon Corp now owns 4,220 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $307,000 after acquiring an additional 150 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.

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