Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) Price Target Increased to $44.00 by Analysts at Royal Bank of Canada

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) had its price target upped by Royal Bank of Canada from $40.00 to $44.00 in a research report report published on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the pipeline company’s stock.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on WMB. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $43.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. US Capital Advisors downgraded shares of Williams Companies from an overweight rating to a hold rating in a report on Monday, April 29th. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a report on Monday, March 25th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, May 8th. Finally, CIBC upped their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $41.25.

Williams Companies Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of WMB stock opened at $41.17 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $50.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.30, a PEG ratio of 6.46 and a beta of 1.05. Williams Companies has a 52 week low of $30.22 and a 52 week high of $41.89. The company has a quick ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $39.82 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $37.14.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.10. Williams Companies had a net margin of 27.29% and a return on equity of 16.27%. The business had revenue of $2.77 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.69 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.56 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Williams Companies will post 1.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.475 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 7th. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.62%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is currently 79.83%.

Insider Transactions at Williams Companies

In related news, SVP Debbie L. Pickle sold 38,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.61, for a total transaction of $1,513,102.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 60,410 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,392,840.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the fourth quarter valued at about $306,417,000. Blackstone Inc. grew its position in shares of Williams Companies by 109.1% in the first quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 6,466,660 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $252,006,000 after purchasing an additional 3,373,800 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of Williams Companies by 35.1% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,553,779 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $321,867,000 after purchasing an additional 2,482,331 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Williams Companies by 55.1% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,900,745 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $165,106,000 after purchasing an additional 1,740,677 shares during the period. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC grew its position in shares of Williams Companies by 69.2% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 4,105,754 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $143,003,000 after purchasing an additional 1,679,452 shares during the period. 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.