The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.48

The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, July 30th, RTT News reports. Investors 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.26%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th.

Williams Companies has raised its dividend payment by an average of 3.8% per year over the last three years. Williams Companies has a dividend payout ratio of 90.9% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings fall. 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 Stock Performance

NYSE:WMB opened at $44.58 on Thursday. 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 $32.49 and a 12-month high of $45.81. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $43.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $40.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $54.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.73, a P/E/G ratio of 6.08 and a beta of 1.05.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its earnings results on Monday, August 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.05. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 27.11%. The firm had revenue of $2.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.42 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Williams Companies will post 1.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WMB has been the subject of several analyst reports. Scotiabank raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. StockNews.com lowered Williams Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Barclays raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $41.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 19th. Seaport Res Ptn lowered Williams Companies from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $38.00 to $46.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 4th. One equities 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. According to data from MarketBeat, Williams Companies has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target 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.