Bank of New York Mellon Corp Reduces Stock Holdings in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp reduced its holdings in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 1.9% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 8,923,131 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 174,373 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $533,246,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 130,356,165 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $7,054,876,000 after acquiring an additional 1,008,213 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 31,263,235 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,687,797,000 after acquiring an additional 540,533 shares during the last quarter. Blackstone Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 36.5% in the 4th quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 18,954,088 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,025,795,000 after acquiring an additional 5,068,738 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 12.5% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 15,236,940 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $824,623,000 after acquiring an additional 1,696,618 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the 4th quarter valued at $575,103,000. 86.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WMB has been the topic of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $58.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Williams Companies from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Friday, June 13th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $63.00 price target on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Friday, May 16th. Finally, Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $52.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, June 5th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $61.25.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

NYSE:WMB opened at $58.47 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.40. The company has a fifty day moving average of $59.51 and a two-hundred day moving average of $57.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $71.29 billion, a PE ratio of 31.26, a P/E/G ratio of 4.33 and a beta of 0.65. Williams Companies, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $40.41 and a fifty-two week high of $63.45.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $3.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.90 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 21.18% and a return on equity of 15.95%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.59 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.42%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 13th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is presently 106.95%.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $62.70, for a total value of $125,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 315,645 shares in the company, valued at $19,790,941.50. This represents a 0.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.44% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.