King Luther Capital Management Corp Has $3.45 Million Stock Position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

King Luther Capital Management Corp boosted its position in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 60.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 75,488 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 28,473 shares during the period. King Luther Capital Management Corp’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $3,446,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. boosted its position in shares of 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 worth $538,482,000 after acquiring an additional 144,713 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,648,918 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $410,064,000 after purchasing an additional 311,530 shares in the last quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 8.8% during the 2nd quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 7,664,152 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $325,726,000 after buying an additional 618,056 shares in the last quarter. Blackstone Inc. raised its stake in Williams Companies by 109.1% during the first quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 6,466,660 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $252,006,000 after acquiring an additional 3,373,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in Williams Companies by 20.1% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 6,117,298 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $259,985,000 after purchasing an additional 1,024,158 shares in the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WMB has been the topic of a number of research reports. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Morgan Stanley upgraded Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $52.00 to $58.00 in a report on Friday, October 4th. Bank of America began 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. CIBC upped their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn lowered shares of Williams Companies from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $51.54.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

NYSE:WMB opened at $59.65 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $32.65 and a twelve month high of $60.36. The company has a fifty day moving average of $51.35 and a 200-day moving average of $45.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $72.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.17, a P/E/G ratio of 6.04 and a beta of 1.03.

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

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.475 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.19%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is 80.17%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.29, for a total transaction of $90,580.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 304,200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,777,218. The trade was a 0.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 7,951 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.30, for a total transaction 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 approximately $1,455,805.40. The trade was a 23.52 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate 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.