Board of the Pension Protection Fund Takes Position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 13,300 shares of the pipeline company's stock, valued at approximately $720,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WMB. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its position in Williams Companies by 20.3% during the second quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 264,710 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $11,164,000 after buying an additional 44,758 shares in the last quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Williams Companies by 2.8% during the second quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 9,298 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $395,000 after buying an additional 257 shares in the last quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lifted its position in Williams Companies by 207.9% during the second quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 22,264 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $946,000 after buying an additional 15,033 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Williams Companies by 3.3% in the second 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 during the period. Finally, One Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Williams Companies in the second quarter valued at $596,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 7,951 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.30, for a total value of $447,641.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 25,858 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,455,805.40. The trade was a 23.52 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.44% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Williams Companies Stock Up 0.2 %

WMB traded up $0.10 on Wednesday, hitting $58.16. 2,280,787 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,286,757. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $32.65 and a twelve month high of $60.36. The company has a market cap of $70.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.60 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a current ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $55.95 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $49.46.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.42 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.52 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 15.89% and a net margin of 27.36%. Williams Companies's revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.45 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th were issued a dividend of $0.475 per share. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.27%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. Williams Companies's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 80.17%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Bank of America assumed coverage on Williams Companies in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $55.00 target price on the stock. Scotiabank restated a "sector perform" rating and issued a $51.00 target price on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Mizuho lifted their target price on Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded Williams Companies from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their target price for the company from $52.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Friday, October 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $53.00.

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.