552 Shares in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) Purchased by Financial Life Planners

Financial Life Planners purchased a new stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 552 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 19.0% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 35,734,666 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,631,288,000 after buying an additional 5,697,605 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of Williams Companies by 3,490.2% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,600,239 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $86,605,000 after acquiring an additional 1,555,667 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 224.1% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,334,307 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $60,909,000 after acquiring an additional 922,550 shares during the period. Castle Hook Partners LP lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 31.7% during the 3rd quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP now owns 2,989,278 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $136,461,000 after acquiring an additional 718,915 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Williams Companies by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 30,722,702 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,398,004,000 after purchasing an additional 520,663 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In other Williams Companies news, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 7,951 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.30, for a total value of $447,641.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 25,858 shares in the company, valued at $1,455,805.40. The trade was a 23.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on WMB. Barclays raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $46.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $55.00 target price on the stock. Finally, CIBC raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $53.00.

Williams Companies Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of Williams Companies stock opened at $56.23 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $56.12 and a 200 day moving average price of $50.86. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $32.65 and a fifty-two week high of $61.46. The firm has a market cap of $68.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.72, a P/E/G ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by $0.01. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 15.89% and a net margin of 27.36%. The business had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.52 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.45 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.56%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is 80.17%.

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.