Royal Bank Of Canada Reaffirms “Outperform” Rating for Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB)

Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated their outperform rating on shares of Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) in a report released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. Royal Bank Of Canada currently has a $63.00 target price on the pipeline company’s stock.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Wolfe Research upgraded Williams Companies from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Friday, June 13th. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Williams Companies from $52.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 5th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Williams Companies from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Williams Companies from $58.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $61.77.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of NYSE WMB opened at $58.43 on Tuesday. Williams Companies has a twelve month low of $40.41 and a twelve month high of $63.45. The company has a current ratio of 0.40, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63. The company has a market capitalization of $71.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.36 and a beta of 0.65. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $59.35 and a 200-day simple moving average of $58.05.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.05. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 15.95% and a net margin of 21.18%. The business had revenue of $3.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.90 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.59 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Williams Companies will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th were paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 13th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is presently 106.95%.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.70, for a total value of $125,400.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 315,645 shares in the company, valued at $19,790,941.50. The trade was a 0.63% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.44% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 1.2% during the first quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 577,123 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $34,489,000 after buying an additional 6,816 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in Williams Companies by 27.5% in the first quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 402,967 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $24,081,000 after purchasing an additional 87,031 shares in the last quarter. Kessler Investment Group LLC purchased a new position in Williams Companies in the first quarter valued at about $327,000. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Williams Companies by 14.0% in the first quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 85,839 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $5,130,000 after purchasing an additional 10,561 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC grew its stake in Williams Companies by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 183,317 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $9,224,000 after purchasing an additional 7,618 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.