Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) Price Target Raised to $89.00

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) had its price objective boosted by UBS Group from $78.00 to $89.00 in a research note released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. UBS Group currently has a buy rating on the pipeline company’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on WMB. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on Williams Companies from $72.00 to $70.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Williams Companies from $78.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 11th. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on Williams Companies from $70.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $75.36.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Shares of WMB stock opened at $72.28 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $88.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.78, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 0.65. Williams Companies has a fifty-two week low of $51.58 and a fifty-two week high of $73.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a current ratio of 0.53. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $63.57 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $61.15.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 10th. The pipeline company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.57 by ($0.02). Williams Companies had a return on equity of 17.32% and a net margin of 21.90%.The firm had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.47 earnings per share. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. Analysts expect that Williams Companies will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. This is an increase from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is currently 93.46%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.39, for a total value of $132,780.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 293,545 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,488,452.55. The trade was a 0.68% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Williams Companies

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Williams Companies by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,963,343 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $8,052,537,000 after acquiring an additional 883,245 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in Williams Companies by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 67,981,106 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $4,086,344,000 after acquiring an additional 1,296,991 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in 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 valued at $3,077,942,000 after purchasing an additional 6,668,950 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 46,053,873 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,768,298,000 after purchasing an additional 2,100,164 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 11.0% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 33,572,067 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,018,017,000 after purchasing an additional 3,314,851 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Williams Companies

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.