The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) has been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the ten ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have assigned a hold recommendation and four have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $39.22.

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on WMB shares. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 25th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $43.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Wolfe Research reissued an “underperform” rating and issued a $34.00 price target on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Thursday, April 18th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Williams Companies

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in Williams Companies by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 19,086,234 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $643,015,000 after acquiring an additional 712,048 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Williams Companies by 8.1% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 14,455,063 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $486,991,000 after acquiring an additional 1,089,150 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its stake in Williams Companies by 7.3% during the 3rd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 13,628,627 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $459,148,000 after acquiring an additional 921,537 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in Williams Companies by 21.3% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,593,482 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $403,801,000 after acquiring an additional 2,039,703 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in Williams Companies by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 11,301,527 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $380,748,000 after acquiring an additional 68,674 shares in the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Williams Companies Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of Williams Companies stock opened at $39.25 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $47.82 billion, a PE ratio of 14.98, a P/E/G ratio of 6.05 and a beta of 1.05. Williams Companies has a twelve month low of $28.27 and a twelve month high of $39.76. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $37.25 and its 200 day moving average price is $35.82. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The pipeline company reported $0.48 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.01. Williams Companies had a net margin of 29.22% and a return on equity of 16.20%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.53 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Williams Companies will post 1.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.475 dividend. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.84%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is currently 72.52%.

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.