The Williams Companies, Inc. (WMB) To Go Ex-Dividend on September 13th

The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, July 30th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be given a dividend of 0.475 per share by the pipeline company on Monday, September 30th. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th.

Williams Companies has increased its dividend payment by an average of 3.8% per year over the last three years. Williams Companies has a payout ratio of 90.9% 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 $2.07 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.90 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 91.8%.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WMB opened at $44.80 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a current ratio of 0.45. Williams Companies has a 52 week low of $32.49 and a 52 week high of $45.81. The firm has a market cap of $54.60 billion, a PE ratio of 18.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.08 and a beta of 1.05. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $43.65 and its 200-day moving average is $40.86.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its earnings results on Monday, August 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $2.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 27.11%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.42 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Williams Companies will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $41.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 19th. Argus upgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 20th. StockNews.com downgraded Williams Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded Williams Companies from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Scotiabank upped their target price on Williams Companies from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $42.83.

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.