Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd Boosts Holdings in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd increased its holdings in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 152.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 16,142 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 9,744 shares during the quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $874,000 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. Vinva Investment Management Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Williams Companies in the fourth quarter worth approximately $795,000. Brooklyn FI LLC purchased a new position in Williams Companies during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $266,000. Generali Asset Management SPA SGR purchased a new position in Williams Companies during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $5,878,000. Evoke Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Williams Companies by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Evoke Wealth LLC now owns 13,765 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $745,000 after purchasing an additional 217 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its holdings in Williams Companies by 78.2% during the fourth quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 196,459 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $10,711,000 after purchasing an additional 86,227 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have weighed in on WMB shares. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. CIBC lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $55.07.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Williams Companies news, COO Micheal G. Dunn sold 96,687 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.04, for a total transaction of $5,128,278.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 714,693 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $37,907,316.72. The trade was a 11.92 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Chad A. Teply sold 26,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.46, for a total transaction of $1,467,960.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 133,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,511,890.08. The trade was a 16.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 139,583 shares of company stock valued at $7,563,278 over the last three months. 0.44% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Williams Companies Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of WMB opened at $59.74 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $57.02 and its 200 day moving average is $53.83. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $37.18 and a fifty-two week high of $61.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $72.84 billion, a PE ratio of 32.64, a P/E/G ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.50.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The pipeline company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.47. Williams Companies had a net margin of 21.17% and a return on equity of 15.85%. Sell-side analysts expect that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.35%. This is a positive change from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is presently 109.29%.

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.