The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) has earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the seventeen research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have given a hold recommendation and nine have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $53.00.

WMB has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $46.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. Scotiabank reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $51.00 target price on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Friday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley raised Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $52.00 to $58.00 in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Mizuho boosted their target price on Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th.

Insider Transactions at Williams Companies

In other news, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 7,951 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.30, for a total transaction of $447,641.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 25,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,455,805.40. This represents a 23.52 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Williams Companies

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of WMB. Calamos Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 56.8% during the 4th quarter. Calamos Advisors LLC now owns 400,082 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $21,652,000 after buying an additional 144,953 shares during the period. Columbus Macro LLC purchased a new stake in Williams Companies during the fourth quarter valued at about $7,002,000. abrdn plc increased its stake in Williams Companies by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. abrdn plc now owns 1,504,850 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $81,367,000 after acquiring an additional 26,846 shares during the last quarter. Financial Life Planners purchased a new position in shares of Williams Companies in the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, Resonant Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 5,361 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $290,000 after purchasing an additional 238 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Price Performance

WMB stock opened at $59.64 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $72.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.17, a PEG ratio of 5.31 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a quick ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67. Williams Companies has a fifty-two week low of $32.65 and a fifty-two week high of $61.46. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $56.47 and a 200 day moving average price of $50.36.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.52 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 15.89% and a net margin of 27.36%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.45 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Williams Companies will post 1.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th were issued a $0.475 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.19%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 80.17%.

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.