Mizuho Increases Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) Price Target to $56.00

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) had its price objective boosted by equities research analysts at Mizuho from $47.00 to $56.00 in a report released on Monday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the pipeline company’s stock. Mizuho’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 5.56% from the company’s current price.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. CIBC upped their price target on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Citigroup upped their price target on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Scotiabank upped their price target on Williams Companies from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn downgraded Williams Companies from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $50.38.

Williams Companies Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of NYSE:WMB opened at $53.05 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $48.19 and a 200 day moving average of $44.06. The company has a market cap of $64.65 billion, a PE ratio of 22.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.78 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a current ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64. Williams Companies has a 12-month low of $32.65 and a 12-month high of $53.30.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.05. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 27.11%. The company had revenue of $2.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.42 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Williams Companies will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.29, for a total transaction of $90,580.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 304,200 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,777,218. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Williams Companies

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 20,983,727 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $817,736,000 after buying an additional 1,175,628 shares during the period. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. increased its stake in Williams Companies by 1.2% in the second quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. now owns 12,670,175 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $538,482,000 after purchasing an additional 144,713 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Williams Companies by 3.3% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,648,918 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $410,064,000 after purchasing an additional 311,530 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP increased its stake in Williams Companies by 13.4% in the first quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP now owns 8,540,611 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $332,828,000 after purchasing an additional 1,010,658 shares during the period. Finally, Bahl & Gaynor Inc. increased its stake in Williams Companies by 8.8% in the second quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 7,664,152 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $325,726,000 after purchasing an additional 618,056 shares during the period. 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.