Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) Reaches New 1-Year High – Here’s Why

Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB)’s share price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $65.81 and last traded at $65.1850, with a volume of 296997 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $64.96.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Monday, January 12th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on Williams Companies from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Williams Companies currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $68.29.

Williams Companies Stock Down 0.8%

The firm has a market capitalization of $78.67 billion, a PE ratio of 33.19, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a current ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $60.46 and a 200 day simple moving average of $59.81.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($0.02). Williams Companies had a net margin of 20.61% and a return on equity of 16.74%. The firm had revenue of $2.92 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.87 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.43 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Williams Companies has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.010-2.190 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 29th. Investors of record on Friday, December 12th were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 12th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 103.09%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.90, for a total transaction of $123,800.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 297,545 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,418,035.50. The trade was a 0.67% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Williams Companies

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Williams Companies during the second quarter worth about $765,164,000. BROOKFIELD Corp ON boosted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 190.3% in the 2nd quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 12,028,186 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $755,490,000 after purchasing an additional 7,884,730 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 15.9% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 48,586,299 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $3,077,942,000 after buying an additional 6,668,950 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its position in Williams Companies by 4,992.2% during the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 3,704,739 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $222,692,000 after buying an additional 3,631,986 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Williams Companies by 27.3% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 14,417,821 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $905,583,000 after buying an additional 3,089,390 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

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.