Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) Now Covered by StockNews.com

StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB – Get Rating) in a research report report published on Thursday morning. The brokerage issued a hold rating on the pipeline company’s stock.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on WMB. Argus downgraded shares of Williams Companies from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 28th. US Capital Advisors raised shares of Williams Companies from a hold rating to an overweight rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 31st. Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $40.00 to $39.00 in a research note on Friday, December 16th. Citigroup started coverage on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Thursday, December 8th. They issued a neutral rating and a $36.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Williams Companies presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $36.90.

Williams Companies Trading Down 1.8 %

Shares of WMB opened at $28.30 on Thursday. Williams Companies has a twelve month low of $28.06 and a twelve month high of $37.97. The company has a market cap of $34.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.85, a P/E/G ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $31.20 and its 200-day simple moving average is $31.96.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB – Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Monday, February 20th. The pipeline company reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.06. Williams Companies had a net margin of 18.69% and a return on equity of 16.02%. The business had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.18 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.39 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Williams Companies will post 1.82 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.4475 per share. This represents a $1.79 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.33%. This is a boost from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 10th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is presently 106.55%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director William H. Spence purchased 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 14th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $29.61 per share, for a total transaction of $148,050.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 48,521 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,436,706.81. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.43% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Williams Companies

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 126,370,141 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $3,617,977,000 after buying an additional 1,193,704 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 88,880,791 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,544,657,000 after buying an additional 393,245 shares in the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 96,588.4% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 63,423,739 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,086,641,000 after buying an additional 63,358,143 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 15.2% in the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 31,131,423 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,024,224,000 after buying an additional 4,112,024 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 27,242,720 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $894,796,000 after buying an additional 273,005 shares in the last quarter. 85.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Williams Companies

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The Williams Cos., Inc operates as an energy infrastructure company, which explores, produces, transports, sells and processes natural gas and petroleum products. It operates through the following segments: Transmission and Gulf of Mexico, Northeast G&P, and West. The Transmission and Gulf of Mexico segment consists of interstate natural gas pipelines, the Transco and Northwest Pipelines, as well as natural gas gathering and processing and crude oil production handling and transportation assets in the Gulf Coast region.