Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) Share Price Crosses Above 200-Day Moving Average – Should You Sell?

The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)’s stock price crossed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Thursday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of $48.58 and traded as high as $55.96. Williams Companies shares last traded at $55.88, with a volume of 5,906,129 shares traded.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on WMB. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $52.00 to $58.00 in a research note on Friday, October 4th. CIBC upped their price target on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $52.07.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

The company has a 50 day moving average of $55.31 and a 200 day moving average of $48.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67. The firm has a market cap of $68.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.58, a PEG ratio of 5.60 and a beta of 1.05.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.52 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 15.89% and a net margin of 27.36%. The business’s revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.45 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th were given a dividend of $0.475 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.40%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is 80.17%.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In related news, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 7,951 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.30, for a total transaction of $447,641.30. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 25,858 shares in the company, valued at $1,455,805.40. This trade represents a 23.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.44% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of WMB. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Williams Companies by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,576,165 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $71,952,000 after buying an additional 35,981 shares during the last quarter. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,482,000. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. raised its position in shares of Williams Companies by 16.4% during the 3rd quarter. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. now owns 77,900 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $3,556,000 after purchasing an additional 11,000 shares during the period. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 82,301 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $3,756,000 after purchasing an additional 552 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Synovus Financial Corp boosted its position in Williams Companies by 48.8% during the 3rd quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 19,533 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $892,000 after purchasing an additional 6,409 shares during the period. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Williams Companies Company Profile

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.