American International Group Inc. Reduces Holdings in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

American International Group Inc. decreased its holdings in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 0.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 322,753 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 1,934 shares during the quarter. American International Group Inc.’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $12,578,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vaughan David Investments LLC IL boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 1.4% in the first quarter. Vaughan David Investments LLC IL now owns 1,038,164 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $40,457,000 after buying an additional 13,835 shares during the last quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC lifted its holdings in Williams Companies by 984.0% during the first quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC now owns 106,526 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $4,151,000 after purchasing an additional 96,699 shares in the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Williams Companies by 74.9% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 79,126 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $3,084,000 after purchasing an additional 33,888 shares in the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its holdings in Williams Companies by 5.9% during the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 20,983,727 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $817,736,000 after purchasing an additional 1,175,628 shares in the last quarter. Finally, O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Williams Companies by 15.7% during the first quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 108,302 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $4,221,000 after purchasing an additional 14,672 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WMB has been the topic of several analyst reports. CIBC lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 8th. Argus raised shares of Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 20th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $43.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $38.00 to $46.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 4th. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $41.77.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Debbie L. Pickle sold 38,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.61, for a total transaction of $1,513,102.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 60,410 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,392,840.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Trading Down 1.0 %

WMB stock traded down $0.43 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $42.06. 3,290,940 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,555,466. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a current ratio of 0.52. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a one year low of $32.49 and a one year high of $45.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $51.26 billion, a PE ratio of 17.85, a PEG ratio of 6.90 and a beta of 1.05. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $41.94 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $38.55.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.10. Williams Companies had a net margin of 27.29% and a return on equity of 16.27%. The business had revenue of $2.77 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.69 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.56 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.86 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 7th were given a dividend of $0.475 per share. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 7th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 79.83%.

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.