Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) Price Target Raised to $56.00

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) had its target price increased by Royal Bank of Canada from $47.00 to $56.00 in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the pipeline company’s stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Argus raised Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 20th. StockNews.com cut Williams Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Seaport Res Ptn lowered Williams Companies from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $47.46.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of NYSE WMB opened at $52.36 on Wednesday. Williams Companies has a fifty-two week low of $32.65 and a fifty-two week high of $52.44. The company has a market cap of $63.81 billion, a PE ratio of 22.00, a P/E/G ratio of 7.10 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a current ratio of 0.45. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $46.29 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $42.87.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its earnings results on Monday, August 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.05. Williams Companies had a net margin of 27.11% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The company had revenue of $2.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.42 EPS. Williams Companies’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Williams Companies will post 1.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th were paid a dividend of $0.475 per share. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is currently 79.83%.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.29, for a total transaction of $90,580.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 304,200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,777,218. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.44% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Williams Companies

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of WMB. Blackstone Inc. boosted its holdings in Williams Companies by 109.1% in the 1st quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 6,466,660 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $252,006,000 after buying an additional 3,373,800 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 40.1% in the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 5,753,223 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $224,203,000 after acquiring an additional 1,647,469 shares during the last quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP purchased a new stake in shares of Williams Companies during the first quarter worth approximately $57,220,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its stake in Williams Companies by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 20,983,727 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $817,736,000 after purchasing an additional 1,175,628 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in Williams Companies by 20.1% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 6,117,298 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $259,985,000 after purchasing an additional 1,024,158 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

About Williams Companies

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.