Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) Price Target Increased to $43.00 by Analysts at Stifel Nicolaus

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) had its target price boosted by Stifel Nicolaus from $40.00 to $43.00 in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the pipeline company’s stock.

WMB has been the topic of a number of other research reports. US Capital Advisors cut shares of Williams Companies from an overweight rating to a hold rating in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Wolfe Research restated an underperform rating and set a $34.00 target price on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $43.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a report on Monday, March 25th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $39.55.

Williams Companies Stock Up 0.5 %

WMB stock traded up $0.18 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $39.50. 1,033,151 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,894,879. Williams Companies has a 1 year low of $28.27 and a 1 year high of $39.99. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $38.01 and its two-hundred day moving average is $36.06. The stock has a market cap of $48.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.13 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.73.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.10. Williams Companies had a net margin of 27.29% and a return on equity of 16.40%. The firm had revenue of $2.77 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.69 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.56 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Williams Companies will post 1.82 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.475 per share. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 7th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is currently 79.83%.

Institutional Trading of Williams Companies

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in WMB. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Williams Companies during the fourth quarter valued at $306,417,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 35.1% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,553,779 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $321,867,000 after purchasing an additional 2,482,331 shares during the period. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 45.3% during the third quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 6,545,151 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $220,506,000 after purchasing an additional 2,040,993 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 55.1% during the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,900,745 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $165,106,000 after purchasing an additional 1,740,677 shares during the period. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 69.2% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 4,105,754 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $143,003,000 after purchasing an additional 1,679,452 shares during the period. 86.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.