Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) Upgraded 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 report sent to investors on Saturday morning.

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on WMB. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Williams Companies from $78.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Scotiabank upped their price objective on Williams Companies from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Williams Companies from $98.00 to $99.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on Williams Companies from $87.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Williams Companies presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $83.56.

Williams Companies Stock Up 1.1%

Shares of NYSE:WMB opened at $74.16 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The stock has a market cap of $90.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.52, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a 50 day moving average of $74.37 and a 200-day moving average of $71.50. Williams Companies has a one year low of $55.82 and a one year high of $80.07.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.10. Williams Companies had a net margin of 23.39% and a return on equity of 18.34%. The business had revenue of $3.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.28 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.60 earnings per share. Williams Companies’s revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Williams Companies will post 2.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 12th were issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 12th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.8%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is 92.11%.

Insider Activity

In other Williams Companies news, CFO John Dean Porter sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.37, for a total value of $3,768,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 196,567 shares in the company, valued at $14,815,254.79. This represents a 20.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Glen G. Jasek sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.15, for a total value of $195,375.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 54,101 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,227,993.15. This represents a 4.42% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 68,500 shares of company stock worth $5,182,655 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Williams Companies

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Towne Trust Company N.A increased its position in shares of Williams Companies by 60.2% during the fourth quarter. Towne Trust Company N.A now owns 431 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 162 shares in the last quarter. Main Street Group LTD bought a new stake in Williams Companies in the 1st quarter valued at $26,000. Motiv8 Investments LLC acquired a new position in Williams Companies in the 4th quarter worth $27,000. Allied Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in Williams Companies during the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Clearstead Trust LLC increased its holdings in Williams Companies by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. Clearstead Trust LLC now owns 485 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 186 shares in the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.