Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) Rating Increased to Overweight at Wells Fargo & Company

Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a report published on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has $46.00 target price on the pipeline company’s stock, up from their prior target price of $38.00.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $43.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. US Capital Advisors cut shares of Williams Companies from an overweight rating to a hold rating in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. Wolfe Research reaffirmed an underperform rating and issued a $34.00 price target on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $40.45.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Shares of Williams Companies stock opened at $40.72 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $39.59 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $36.95. Williams Companies has a 1-year low of $30.10 and a 1-year high of $41.89. The company has a market cap of $49.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.11, a PEG ratio of 6.55 and a beta of 1.05.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $2.77 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.69 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 27.29% and a return on equity of 16.27%. The business’s revenue was down 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.56 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Williams Companies will post 1.85 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.475 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 7th. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.67%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is currently 79.83%.

Insider Transactions at Williams Companies

In other news, SVP Debbie L. Pickle sold 38,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.61, for a total transaction of $1,513,102.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 60,410 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,392,840.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of WMB. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Williams Companies in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $306,417,000. Blackstone Inc. boosted its holdings in Williams Companies by 109.1% in the 1st quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 6,466,660 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $252,006,000 after purchasing an additional 3,373,800 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Williams Companies by 35.1% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,553,779 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $321,867,000 after purchasing an additional 2,482,331 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Williams Companies by 55.1% in the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,900,745 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $165,106,000 after purchasing an additional 1,740,677 shares during the period. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC boosted its holdings in Williams Companies by 69.2% in the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 4,105,754 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $143,003,000 after purchasing an additional 1,679,452 shares during the period. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.