Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) has been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the nineteen ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, thirteen have issued a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $75.3571.

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Tudor Pickering upgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 1st. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. Scotiabank upgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $66.00 to $84.00 in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Williams Companies from $71.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 11th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Williams Companies

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 27,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.92, for a total transaction of $1,968,840.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 293,159 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,377,154.28. This trade represents a 8.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 10,107 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.91, for a total transaction of $757,115.37. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 17,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,290,699.30. The trade was a 36.97% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders sold 41,107 shares of company stock valued at $2,982,535. Company insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Williams Companies by 3.1% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,540,556 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $287,644,000 after purchasing an additional 134,777 shares during the period. World Investment Advisors boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 185.6% in the 3rd quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 43,069 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,728,000 after purchasing an additional 27,987 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of Williams Companies by 9.5% during the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 184,123 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $11,664,000 after buying an additional 16,027 shares during the period. Compass Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Williams Companies by 75.9% during the 3rd quarter. Compass Wealth Management LLC now owns 125,290 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $7,937,000 after buying an additional 54,057 shares during the period. Finally, Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 3,344.8% during the third quarter. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp now owns 17,465 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,106,000 after buying an additional 16,958 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE WMB opened at $74.75 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $65.35 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $61.81. Williams Companies has a 52-week low of $51.58 and a 52-week high of $75.59. The stock has a market capitalization of $91.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 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 for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $3.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.10 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 17.32% and a net margin of 21.90%.During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.47 earnings per share. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Williams Companies will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is a boost from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.8%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is presently 93.46%.

Williams Companies Company Profile

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.