Vivid Wealth Management LLC Purchases New Stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Vivid Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 50,917 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,324,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Williams Companies by 5.9% during the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 20,983,727 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $817,736,000 after acquiring an additional 1,175,628 shares in the last quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. boosted its stake in Williams Companies by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. now owns 12,670,175 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $538,482,000 after purchasing an additional 144,713 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Williams Companies by 3.3% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,648,918 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $410,064,000 after purchasing an additional 311,530 shares in the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 13.4% in the first quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP now owns 8,540,611 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $332,828,000 after purchasing an additional 1,010,658 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bahl & Gaynor Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 8.8% in the second quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 7,664,152 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $325,726,000 after purchasing an additional 618,056 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WMB has been the subject of several recent research reports. StockNews.com downgraded Williams Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $55.00 target price for the company. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $52.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Friday, October 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $48.62.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Williams Companies stock traded up $0.01 during trading on Monday, hitting $52.51. The stock had a trading volume of 986,521 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,225,635. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $47.17 and its two-hundred day moving average is $43.36. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $32.65 and a 1 year high of $52.85. The stock has a market cap of $64.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.88 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its earnings results on Monday, August 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.05. Williams Companies had a net margin of 27.11% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The firm had revenue of $2.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.42 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th were issued a dividend of $0.475 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.62%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is 81.55%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.29, for a total value of $90,580.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 304,200 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,777,218. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

About Williams Companies

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.