The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) Declares Dividend Increase – $0.50 Per Share

The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 29th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.50 per share by the pipeline company on Monday, March 31st. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.61%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48.

Williams Companies has increased its dividend payment by an average of 5.0% annually over the last three years. Williams Companies has a payout ratio of 87.0% meaning its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings decline. Equities research analysts expect Williams Companies to earn $2.04 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 98.0%.

Williams Companies Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of WMB opened at $55.37 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $56.34 and its 200-day moving average price is $50.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $67.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.36, a PEG ratio of 5.31 and a beta of 1.06. 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 1-year low of $32.65 and a 1-year high of $61.46.

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

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In other Williams Companies news, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 7,951 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.30, for a total transaction of $447,641.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 25,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,455,805.40. The trade was a 23.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.44% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on WMB shares. Truist Financial lifted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Scotiabank reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $51.00 price target on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $55.00 price target for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $46.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $53.00.

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.