Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) Price Target Raised to $58.00

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) had its price target raised by stock analysts at Barclays from $56.00 to $58.00 in a research report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “equal weight” rating on the pipeline company’s stock. Barclays‘s price objective would suggest a potential downside of 2.68% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on WMB. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, CIBC lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $55.21.

Williams Companies Price Performance

WMB stock opened at $59.60 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $57.09 and a two-hundred day moving average of $53.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67. The stock has a market cap of $72.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 1.03. Williams Companies has a 52-week low of $37.18 and a 52-week high of $61.46.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The pipeline company reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.47. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 15.85% and a net margin of 21.17%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Williams Companies will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Larry C. Larsen sold 8,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.94, for a total transaction of $455,520.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 81,265 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,627,229.10. The trade was a 8.96 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Chad A. Teply sold 26,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.46, for a total value of $1,467,960.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 133,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,511,890.08. This trade represents a 16.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 139,583 shares of company stock valued at $7,563,278 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Williams Companies

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the 4th quarter valued at about $720,000. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 13.8% in the 4th quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC now owns 162,799 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $8,811,000 after purchasing an additional 19,782 shares during the last quarter. Golden State Equity Partners lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 319.9% in the 4th quarter. Golden State Equity Partners now owns 12,038 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $651,000 after purchasing an additional 9,171 shares during the last quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 81.4% in the 4th quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC now owns 185,920 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $10,062,000 after purchasing an additional 83,429 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Myriad Asset Management US LP purchased a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the 4th quarter valued at about $995,000. 86.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.