Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Jefferies Financial Group Analyst Says

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

WMB has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Citigroup raised their target price on Williams Companies from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Monday, January 12th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Finally, Tudor Pickering upgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 1st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Williams Companies has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $68.64.

Williams Companies Price Performance

NYSE:WMB opened at $66.36 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $61.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $60.14. Williams Companies has a one year low of $51.58 and a one year high of $68.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73, a current ratio of 0.42 and a quick ratio of 0.36. The stock has a market cap of $81.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.21, a PEG ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 0.64.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.02). Williams Companies had a net margin of 20.61% and a return on equity of 16.74%. The company had revenue of $2.92 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.87 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.43 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Williams Companies will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.53, for a total transaction of $242,120.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 302,645 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,319,101.85. This represents a 1.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Williams Companies

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WMB. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Williams Companies in the second quarter worth about $765,164,000. BROOKFIELD Corp ON boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 190.3% in the 2nd quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 12,028,186 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $755,490,000 after purchasing an additional 7,884,730 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position 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 buying an additional 6,668,950 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its holdings in Williams Companies by 4,992.2% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 3,704,739 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $222,692,000 after buying an additional 3,631,986 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of Williams Companies by 27.3% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 14,417,821 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $905,583,000 after acquiring an additional 3,089,390 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

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.