Entropy Technologies LP Buys New Stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Entropy Technologies LP bought a new stake in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 81,413 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,406,000.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Williams Companies by 19.0% during the third 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 during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in Williams Companies by 3,490.2% during the fourth 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 during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its position in Williams Companies by 224.1% during the third 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 during the last quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP lifted its position in Williams Companies by 31.7% during the third 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Williams Companies by 1.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 30,722,702 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,398,004,000 after purchasing an additional 520,663 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Williams Companies Trading Down 0.1 %

NYSE WMB opened at $55.93 on Friday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $68.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.06 and a beta of 1.04. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $55.91 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $51.19. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a one year low of $32.65 and a one year high of $61.46.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $2.52 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.45 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.91 EPS 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.58%. This is an increase from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is presently 80.17%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have commented on WMB shares. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $55.00 price objective for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $46.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. Scotiabank restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $51.00 target price on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $53.00.

Williams Companies Profile

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.