The Williams Companies, Inc. (WMB) To Go Ex-Dividend on March 14th

The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 29th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.50 per share by the pipeline company on Monday, March 31st. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.54%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48.

Williams Companies has increased its dividend by an average of 5.0% per year over the last three years. Williams Companies has a payout ratio of 87.0% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings decline. Equities analysts expect Williams Companies to earn $2.03 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 98.5%.

Williams Companies Stock Up 2.2 %

WMB stock opened at $56.55 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $56.27 and its 200 day moving average price is $50.61. Williams Companies has a 52 week low of $32.65 and a 52 week high of $61.46. The company has a market cap of $68.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.86, a P/E/G ratio of 5.00 and a beta of 1.06.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by $0.01. Williams Companies had a net margin of 27.36% and a return on equity of 15.89%. The company had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.52 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.45 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Williams Companies will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $46.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley raised Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $52.00 to $58.00 in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Williams Companies has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $53.00.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In other Williams Companies news, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 7,951 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 25,858 shares in the company, valued at $1,455,805.40. The trade was a 23.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.44% 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.