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

Key Points

• Analysts give Williams a consensus "Moderate Buy" rating from 20 firms, with an average 12‑month price target of $77.47 and several recent target upgrades (Wells Fargo as high as $89).
• Latest quarter showed $0.55 EPS (miss vs. $0.57) but revenue beat at $3.20B, and management set FY2026 guidance of 2.20–2.38 EPS versus analysts' ~2.08 forecast.
• The company raised its quarterly dividend to $0.525 (annualized $2.10, ~2.9% yield) while insiders sold a total of 53,369 shares (~$3.91M) over the last quarter.

Shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB - Get Free Report) have earned a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the twenty research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $77.4667.

WMB has been the topic of several research reports. Truist Financial initiated coverage on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Tuesday, March 24th. They set a "buy" rating and a $84.00 price objective on the stock. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $70.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, April 10th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $80.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, March 13th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 1st.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.75, for a total value of $143,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 289,159 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,747,158.25. This trade represents a 0.69% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 10,107 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.91, for a total transaction of $757,115.37. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 17,230 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,290,699.30. This trade represents a 36.97% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 53,369 shares of company stock worth $3,912,512 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Williams Companies

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Towne Trust Company N.A lifted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 60.2% in the fourth quarter. Towne Trust Company N.A now owns 431 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 162 shares during the period. Motiv8 Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Clearstead Trust LLC lifted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. Clearstead Trust LLC now owns 485 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 186 shares during the period. Kemnay Advisory Services Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, WHI TRUST Co LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company's stock.

Williams Companies Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of Williams Companies stock opened at $71.45 on Wednesday. Williams Companies has a 1 year low of $55.56 and a 1 year high of $76.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a current ratio of 0.53. The company has a market capitalization of $87.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.39, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 0.63. The company's fifty day moving average is $72.69 and its two-hundred day moving average is $65.19.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 10th. The pipeline company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.57 by ($0.02). Williams Companies had a return on equity of 17.32% and a net margin of 21.90%.The business had revenue of $3.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.47 earnings per share. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. Analysts forecast that Williams Companies will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th were paid a $0.525 dividend. This is a boost from Williams Companies's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 13th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.9%. Williams Companies's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 98.13%.

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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