Lee Danner & Bass Inc. Invests $164,000 in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Lee Danner & Bass Inc. purchased a new position in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 3,023 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $164,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in WMB. Holderness Investments Co. lifted its holdings in Williams Companies by 4.9% during the 4th quarter. Holderness Investments Co. now owns 4,623 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $250,000 after purchasing an additional 218 shares in the last quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Williams Companies by 49.9% during the 4th quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 47,479 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,570,000 after purchasing an additional 15,810 shares in the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas lifted its holdings in Williams Companies by 127.9% during the 4th quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 265,747 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $14,382,000 after purchasing an additional 149,119 shares in the last quarter. Sandy Spring Bank purchased a new stake in Williams Companies during the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. Finally, Royal London Asset Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in Williams Companies by 7.3% during the 4th quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 209,344 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $11,330,000 after purchasing an additional 14,307 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Price Performance

WMB opened at $59.60 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 0.50 and a quick ratio of 0.45. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $57.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $53.93. The firm has a market cap of $72.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.57, a PEG ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 1.03. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $37.18 and a 1 year high of $61.46.

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

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. This is a boost from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.36%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is 109.29%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Chad A. Teply sold 26,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.46, for a total value 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 8,896 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.50, for a total value of $511,520.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 22,339 shares in the company, valued at $1,284,492.50. This trade represents a 28.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 139,583 shares of company stock valued at $7,563,278 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WMB has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Williams Companies from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Barclays raised their price target on Williams Companies from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. Truist Financial raised their price target on Williams Companies from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. CIBC raised their price target on Williams Companies from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price target on Williams Companies from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, March 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $55.21.

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.