Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) Reaches New 52-Week High After Analyst Upgrade

Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB)’s share price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday after Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on the stock from $71.00 to $76.00. Jefferies Financial Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. Williams Companies traded as high as $68.46 and last traded at $68.1270, with a volume of 2228833 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $66.34.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on WMB. Citigroup upped their target price on Williams Companies from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 13th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Williams Companies from $72.00 to $70.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Mizuho upgraded shares of Williams Companies to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Three research 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $68.64.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.53, for a total value of $242,120.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 302,645 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,319,101.85. This represents a 1.30% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 8,000 shares of company stock valued at $498,700. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Williams Companies

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of WMB. World Investment Advisors increased its position in Williams Companies by 185.6% in the third quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 43,069 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,728,000 after buying an additional 27,987 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 9.5% during the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 184,123 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $11,664,000 after buying an additional 16,027 shares during the last quarter. Compass Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 75.9% during the 3rd quarter. Compass Wealth Management LLC now owns 125,290 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $7,937,000 after acquiring an additional 54,057 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in Williams Companies by 11.3% in the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,740,024 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $110,126,000 after acquiring an additional 176,880 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Adams Natural Resources Fund Inc. increased its holdings in Williams Companies by 1,238.3% in the 2nd quarter. Adams Natural Resources Fund Inc. now owns 365,350 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $22,948,000 after acquiring an additional 338,050 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Williams Companies Stock Up 3.2%

The firm has a market capitalization of $83.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.29, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.42. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $61.47 and a 200-day moving average of $60.21.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $2.92 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.87 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.74% and a net margin of 20.61%.Williams Companies’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.43 EPS. Research analysts predict that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 3.1%. 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 103.09%.

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.