Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) Sets New 1-Year High at $43.22

Shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $43.22 and last traded at $42.98, with a volume of 1450729 shares. The stock had previously closed at $43.11.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on WMB shares. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Argus upgraded Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 20th. StockNews.com cut Williams Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group boosted their target price on Williams Companies from $43.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Williams Companies from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, June 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $41.42.

Williams Companies Trading Down 1.4 %

The stock has a market cap of $51.53 billion, a PE ratio of 17.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.73 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a current ratio of 0.52. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $40.34 and its 200 day moving average price is $37.43.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its earnings results on Monday, May 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $2.77 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.69 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.27% and a net margin of 27.29%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.56 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 7th were given a $0.475 dividend. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.49%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 7th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is 79.83%.

Insider Transactions at Williams Companies

In other news, SVP Debbie L. Pickle sold 38,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.61, for a total transaction of $1,513,102.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 60,410 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,392,840.10. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Williams Companies

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the fourth quarter worth $306,417,000. ETF Store Inc. grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. ETF Store Inc. now owns 28,444 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $991,000 after purchasing an additional 899 shares in the last quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 24.5% during the fourth quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,636,222 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $91,820,000 after purchasing an additional 518,009 shares in the last quarter. Rheos Capital Works Inc. grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 59.0% during the fourth quarter. Rheos Capital Works Inc. now owns 660,000 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $22,988,000 after purchasing an additional 245,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 6.1% during the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,350,514 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $49,037,000 after purchasing an additional 77,524 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

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.