Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) Receives Sector Perform Rating from Scotiabank

Scotiabank reissued their sector perform rating on shares of Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) in a research report released on Friday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has a $51.00 price target on the pipeline company’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $55.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Barclays lifted their target price on Williams Companies from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, CIBC upped their target price on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $53.00.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Williams Companies stock opened at $55.61 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $67.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.60 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $55.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $49.17. The company has a current ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67. Williams Companies has a 12-month low of $32.65 and a 12-month high of $60.36.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.52 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.45 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Williams Companies will post 1.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th were issued a $0.475 dividend. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.42%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is 80.17%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 7,951 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.30, for a total transaction of $447,641.30. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 25,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,455,805.40. This represents a 23.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Williams Companies

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WMB. Graypoint LLC grew its position in Williams Companies by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Graypoint LLC now owns 14,781 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $800,000 after buying an additional 284 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 35,660 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,930,000 after acquiring an additional 872 shares during the period. Innova Wealth Partners purchased a new position in Williams Companies in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $226,000. Diversified Trust Co raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 99.1% during the fourth quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 33,628 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,820,000 after purchasing an additional 16,742 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kozak & Associates Inc. boosted its position in Williams Companies by 43.5% during the fourth quarter. Kozak & Associates Inc. now owns 4,056 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $230,000 after purchasing an additional 1,229 shares in the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.