Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) Hits New 12-Month High After Analyst Upgrade

Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday after UBS Group raised their price target on the stock from $78.00 to $89.00. UBS Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. Williams Companies traded as high as $73.01 and last traded at $72.1570, with a volume of 183828 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $72.28.

WMB has been the topic of several other research reports. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Williams Companies from $72.00 to $70.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. Citigroup increased their price target on Williams Companies from $70.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Williams Companies from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $75.36.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.39, for a total value of $132,780.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 293,545 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,488,452.55. This trade represents a 0.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Williams Companies

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 40.9% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 13,680 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $740,000 after acquiring an additional 3,969 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 5.5% during the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 4,635 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $291,000 after purchasing an additional 242 shares during the period. Mutual Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 33.9% in the second quarter. Mutual Advisors LLC now owns 4,615 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $267,000 after purchasing an additional 1,168 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its holdings in Williams Companies by 16.2% during the 2nd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 255,493 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $16,166,000 after buying an additional 35,541 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Phoenix Financial Ltd. boosted its position in Williams Companies by 50.8% in the 2nd quarter. Phoenix Financial Ltd. now owns 69,079 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $4,339,000 after buying an additional 23,273 shares during the period. 86.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Williams Companies Price Performance

The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $63.34 and its 200 day simple moving average is $61.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a current ratio of 0.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $88.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.65.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 10th. The pipeline company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.10 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 21.90% and a return on equity of 17.32%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.47 EPS. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The business 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 is an increase from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 93.46%.

About Williams Companies

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.