Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) Reaches New 1-Year Low at $28.17

The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB – Get Rating) hit a new 52-week low during trading on Monday . The stock traded as low as $28.17 and last traded at $28.69, with a volume of 1173940 shares. The stock had previously closed at $28.90.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently commented on WMB. Argus lowered shares of Williams Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 28th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 22nd. Barclays lowered shares of Williams Companies from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $35.00 to $37.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 18th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $40.00 to $39.00 in a report on Friday, December 16th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of Williams Companies from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $37.00 to $34.00 in a report on Monday, February 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.82.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $31.42 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $32.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.78. The stock has a market cap of $35.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.41, a PEG ratio of 4.53 and a beta of 1.17.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 20th. The pipeline company reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.18 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 18.69% and a return on equity of 16.02%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.39 EPS. On average, analysts expect that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 13th will be given a $0.4475 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 10th. This represents a $1.79 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.12%. This is a boost from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is presently 106.55%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Williams Companies by 1.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 126,370,141 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $3,617,977,000 after buying an additional 1,193,704 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in Williams Companies by 0.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 88,880,791 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,544,657,000 after buying an additional 393,245 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in Williams Companies by 96,588.4% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 63,423,739 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,086,641,000 after buying an additional 63,358,143 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG lifted its position in Williams Companies by 15.2% in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 31,131,423 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,024,224,000 after buying an additional 4,112,024 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 27,242,720 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $894,796,000 after purchasing an additional 273,005 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.38% of the company’s stock.

About Williams Companies

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The Williams Cos., Inc operates as an energy infrastructure company, which explores, produces, transports, sells and processes natural gas and petroleum products. It operates through the following segments: Transmission and Gulf of Mexico, Northeast G&P, and West. The Transmission and Gulf of Mexico segment consists of interstate natural gas pipelines, the Transco and Northwest Pipelines, as well as natural gas gathering and processing and crude oil production handling and transportation assets in the Gulf Coast region.