Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) Price Target Raised to $55.00 at The Goldman Sachs Group

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) had its target price lifted by investment analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group from $45.00 to $55.00 in a report released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “neutral” rating on the pipeline company’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s price objective indicates a potential downside of 5.74% from the company’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Truist Financial increased their price target on Williams Companies from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. StockNews.com lowered Williams Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $55.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Williams Companies currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $51.79.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WMB opened at $58.35 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $51.60 and a 200-day simple moving average of $45.86. The company has a quick ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67. Williams Companies has a 52 week low of $32.65 and a 52 week high of $60.36. The company has a market cap of $71.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.56, a P/E/G ratio of 6.14 and a beta of 1.03.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.01. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 15.89% and a net margin of 27.36%. The business had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.52 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.45 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Williams Companies will post 1.92 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.29, for a total value of $90,580.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 304,200 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,777,218. This represents a 0.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 7,951 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.30, for a total value of $447,641.30. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 25,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,455,805.40. This trade represents a 23.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Williams Companies

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WMB. Synovus Financial Corp increased its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 48.8% during the 3rd 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 during the period. Tidal Investments LLC raised its stake in Williams Companies by 0.5% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 41,514 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,895,000 after acquiring an additional 207 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in Williams Companies during the third quarter worth about $1,346,000. World Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Williams Companies during the third quarter worth approximately $545,000. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 42.3% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 452,739 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $20,668,000 after acquiring an additional 134,643 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

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.