Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) Upgraded at Tudor Pickering

Tudor Pickering upgraded shares of Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a report published on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

WMB has been the subject of several other reports. Zacks Research cut Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Friday, October 17th. Cibc World Mkts raised shares of Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 15th. CIBC raised shares of Williams Companies from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and set a $64.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 15th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $70.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $68.21.

Williams Companies Price Performance

WMB opened at $61.54 on Monday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $60.83 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $59.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $75.15 billion, a PE ratio of 31.72, a P/E/G ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 0.62. Williams Companies has a 52 week low of $51.58 and a 52 week high of $65.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.42.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.02). Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.74% and a net margin of 20.61%.The company had revenue of $2.92 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.87 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.43 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. Williams Companies has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.010-2.190 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Williams Companies will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 29th. Investors of record on Friday, December 12th will be given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 12th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.2%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 103.09%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.53, for a total transaction of $242,120.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 302,645 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,319,101.85. The trade was a 1.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.44% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Williams Companies

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,075,340 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $8,358,462,000 after acquiring an additional 1,912,156 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of Williams Companies by 15.9% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 48,586,299 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $3,077,942,000 after purchasing an additional 6,668,950 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG grew its position in shares of Williams Companies by 5.6% in the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 17,520,491 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,047,025,000 after purchasing an additional 932,998 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in Williams Companies by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 15,291,842 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $913,840,000 after purchasing an additional 54,902 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in Williams Companies by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 14,575,898 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $923,383,000 after purchasing an additional 158,077 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Company Profile

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.