Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) Receives $76.50 Consensus Price Target from Analysts

Shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the nineteen analysts that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, thirteen have issued a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $76.50.

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on WMB shares. Scotiabank upgraded Williams Companies from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $84.00 in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Williams Companies from $83.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $78.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Williams Companies from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Williams Companies stock opened at $73.56 on Friday. Williams Companies has a 12 month low of $51.58 and a 12 month high of $76.87. The company has a current ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $69.86 and its 200 day simple moving average is $63.72. The company has a market cap of $89.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.38, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.63.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 10th. The pipeline company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.10 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 17.32% and a net margin of 21.90%.During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.47 earnings per share. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Williams Companies will post 2.08 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. This is a positive change from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is presently 98.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.24, for a total value of $150,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 291,159 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,906,803.16. This trade represents a 0.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Payvand Fazel sold 2,898 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction on Friday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.15, for a total value of $211,988.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president 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. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 51,369 shares of company stock worth $3,769,012. Insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Williams Companies

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of WMB. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Williams Companies during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $747,749,000. BROOKFIELD Corp ON raised its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 190.3% in the 2nd quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 12,028,186 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $755,490,000 after acquiring an additional 7,884,730 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position 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 during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 21.3% during the 4th quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 21,325,482 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,281,875,000 after acquiring an additional 3,748,126 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 4,992.2% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 3,704,739 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $222,692,000 after purchasing an additional 3,631,986 shares in the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Williams Companies Company Profile

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.