Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) Upgraded at The Goldman Sachs Group

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) was upgraded by investment analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a $82.00 target price on the pipeline company’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 15.22% from the stock’s current price.

WMB has been the topic of several other reports. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $78.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $70.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $78.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $80.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.60.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Williams Companies stock opened at $71.17 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $72.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $65.35. The company has a market cap of $86.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83, a current ratio of 0.53 and a quick ratio of 0.48. Williams Companies has a fifty-two week low of $55.56 and a fifty-two week high of $76.87.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 10th. The pipeline company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.57 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.10 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 17.32% and a net margin of 21.90%.During the same period last year, the business earned $0.47 earnings per share. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Williams Companies will post 2.08 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Williams Companies

In other Williams Companies news, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 10,107 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.91, for a total value of $757,115.37. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 17,230 shares in the company, valued at $1,290,699.30. The trade was a 36.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Payvand Fazel sold 2,898 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.15, for a total transaction of $211,988.70. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 31,766 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,323,682.90. This trade represents a 8.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 53,369 shares of company stock valued at $3,912,512 over the last three months. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Williams Companies

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Williams Companies by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,963,343 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $8,052,537,000 after acquiring an additional 883,245 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Williams Companies by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 67,981,106 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $4,086,344,000 after acquiring an additional 1,296,991 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 15.9% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 48,586,299 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $3,077,942,000 after buying an additional 6,668,950 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 46,053,873 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,768,298,000 after buying an additional 2,100,164 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 11.0% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 33,572,067 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,018,017,000 after buying an additional 3,314,851 shares during the period. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Williams Companies Company Profile

Williams Companies, Inc (NYSE: WMB) is a U.S.-based energy infrastructure company focused on the midstream segment of the natural gas value chain. The company develops, owns and operates assets that gather, process, transport and store natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGLs). Its operations support the movement of gas from production areas to end users including utilities, power generators, industrial customers and export facilities.

Williams’s product and service offering includes interstate and intrastate pipeline transmission, gas-gathering systems, processing facilities that remove impurities and separate NGLs, storage services and fractionation and transportation of NGL products.