Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) Given New $76.00 Price Target at Jefferies Financial Group

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) had its target price raised by investment analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from $71.00 to $76.00 in a research report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the pipeline company’s stock. Jefferies Financial Group’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 14.53% from the company’s current price.

Several other analysts also recently commented on the company. Mizuho raised Williams Companies to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 27th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on Williams Companies from $72.00 to $70.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Zacks Research cut Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 6th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Monday, January 12th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $68.64.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:WMB opened at $66.36 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $61.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $60.14. Williams Companies has a fifty-two week low of $51.58 and a fifty-two week high of $68.27. The company has a market capitalization of $81.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.21, a P/E/G ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73, a current ratio of 0.42 and a quick ratio of 0.36.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $2.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.87 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 20.61% and a return on equity of 16.74%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.43 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Williams Companies will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.90, for a total value of $123,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 297,545 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,418,035.50. This trade represents a 0.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.44% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Williams Companies

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Williams Companies by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,963,343 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $8,052,537,000 after purchasing an additional 883,245 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 15.9% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 48,586,299 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $3,077,942,000 after purchasing an additional 6,668,950 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 14,575,898 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $923,383,000 after purchasing an additional 158,077 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $765,164,000. Finally, BROOKFIELD Corp ON grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 190.3% in the second quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 12,028,186 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $755,490,000 after buying an additional 7,884,730 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

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.