The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) Declares $0.48 Quarterly Dividend

The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 30th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, June 7th will be given a dividend of 0.475 per share by the pipeline company on Monday, June 24th. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.92%.

Williams Companies has increased its dividend payment by an average of 3.8% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 8 consecutive years. Williams Companies has a dividend payout ratio of 93.1% meaning its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings fall. Equities analysts expect Williams Companies to earn $2.02 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.90 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 94.1%.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of WMB traded down $0.58 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $38.63. The company had a trading volume of 2,952,961 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,927,745. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $37.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $35.93. The company has a market capitalization of $47.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.96, a P/E/G ratio of 6.14 and a beta of 1.04. Williams Companies has a 1-year low of $28.27 and a 1-year high of $39.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.77.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The pipeline company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.01. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.20% and a net margin of 29.22%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.53 EPS. Analysts expect that Williams Companies will post 1.83 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WMB has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays upped their target price on Williams Companies from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Wolfe Research reissued an “underperform” rating and issued a $34.00 price objective on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Truist Financial boosted their price target on Williams Companies from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 25th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $43.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $39.22.

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.