Ninety One UK Ltd Acquires 167,699 Shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Ninety One UK Ltd grew its holdings in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 57.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 461,711 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 167,699 shares during the quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $24,988,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of WMB. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 19.0% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 35,734,666 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,631,288,000 after purchasing an additional 5,697,605 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 3,490.2% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,600,239 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $86,605,000 after purchasing an additional 1,555,667 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI raised its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 224.1% during 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 purchasing an additional 922,550 shares in the last quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP raised 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 purchasing an additional 718,915 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Williams Companies by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 30,722,702 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,398,004,000 after buying an additional 520,663 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 7,951 shares of Williams Companies 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $1,455,805.40. This trade represents a 23.52 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.44% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on WMB. Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $55.00 target price on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $46.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $53.00.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of Williams Companies stock opened at $56.86 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a current ratio of 0.57. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $56.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $51.03. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $32.65 and a twelve month high of $61.46. The firm has a market cap of $69.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 1.05.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its earnings results 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. Williams Companies had a net margin of 27.36% and a return on equity of 15.89%. The business had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.52 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.45 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. 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 3.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is 80.17%.

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.