Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) Rating Increased to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Saturday morning.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $98.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $78.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price objective on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Tuesday. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce lifted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperformer” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Tuesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $83.56.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of WMB stock opened at $73.34 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $74.37 and a two-hundred day moving average of $71.32. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99. Williams Companies has a 12 month low of $55.82 and a 12 month high of $80.07. The company has a market capitalization of $89.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.17, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.57.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 4th. The pipeline company reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $3.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.28 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 18.34% and a net margin of 23.39%.Williams Companies’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.60 EPS. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Williams Companies will post 2.43 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 12th were given a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 12th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is 92.11%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Williams Companies news, COO Larry C. Larsen sold 12,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.48, for a total transaction of $917,760.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 98,219 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,511,789.12. This trade represents a 10.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.16, for a total transaction of $148,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 283,159 shares in the company, valued at $20,999,071.44. This represents a 0.70% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 68,500 shares of company stock valued at $5,182,655. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Williams Companies

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WMB. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 0.7% in 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 acquiring an additional 883,245 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Williams Companies by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 67,981,106 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $4,086,344,000 after acquiring an additional 1,296,991 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in Williams Companies by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 46,053,873 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,768,298,000 after acquiring an additional 2,100,164 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in Williams Companies by 11.0% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 33,572,067 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,018,017,000 after purchasing an additional 3,314,851 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its holdings in Williams Companies by 21.3% during the 4th quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 21,325,482 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,281,875,000 after purchasing an additional 3,748,126 shares in the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.