Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) Reaches New 1-Year Low – What’s Next?

The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) hit a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $57.60 and last traded at $58.59, with a volume of 7479823 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $59.67.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on WMB. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Williams Companies from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. CIBC upped their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $58.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $57.77.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $71.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 0.87. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $57.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.33.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The pipeline company reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.47. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 15.85% and a net margin of 21.17%. Analysts expect that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.41%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is currently 109.29%.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In related news, SVP Chad A. Teply sold 26,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.46, for a total value of $1,467,960.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 133,048 shares in the company, valued at $7,511,890.08. This represents a 16.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Larry C. Larsen sold 8,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.94, for a total transaction of $455,520.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 81,265 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,627,229.10. This represents a 8.96 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 139,583 shares of company stock worth $7,563,278 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in Williams Companies by 3.4% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 3,271,141 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $149,326,000 after buying an additional 108,675 shares during the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Williams Companies during the third quarter valued at approximately $545,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in Williams Companies in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,346,000. Tidal Investments LLC raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 0.5% in the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 41,514 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,895,000 after purchasing an additional 207 shares during the period. Finally, Synovus Financial Corp boosted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 48.8% during the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 19,533 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $892,000 after purchasing an additional 6,409 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

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.