Brookstone Capital Management Purchases 7,676 Shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Brookstone Capital Management grew its position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB - Free Report) by 63.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 19,758 shares of the pipeline company's stock after purchasing an additional 7,676 shares during the period. Brookstone Capital Management's holdings in Williams Companies were worth $1,069,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI boosted its holdings in Williams Companies by 78.7% during the second quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 12,994 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $552,000 after purchasing an additional 5,721 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 5.8% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,016,985 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $43,222,000 after buying an additional 56,000 shares during the last quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 263,620 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $11,204,000 after acquiring an additional 1,468 shares in the last quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT increased its position in shares of Williams Companies by 7.7% in the second quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT now owns 9,789 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $416,000 after acquiring an additional 700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 8.3% during the second quarter. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co now owns 25,120 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $1,068,000 after acquiring an additional 1,920 shares in the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 7,951 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 in the company, valued at approximately $1,455,805.40. The trade was a 23.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.44% of the company's stock.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE WMB traded up $0.04 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $59.22. 8,207,230 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,068,557. The firm has a market capitalization of $72.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.99, a P/E/G ratio of 5.36 and a beta of 1.06. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $56.08 and its 200 day simple moving average is $49.59. 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 Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $32.65 and a 52 week high of $60.36.

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

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th were issued a $0.475 dividend. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. Williams Companies's dividend payout ratio is currently 80.17%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have weighed in on WMB shares. Mizuho raised their price target on Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. 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. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Williams Companies from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and upped their price target for the stock from $52.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Friday, October 4th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $55.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Scotiabank restated a "sector perform" rating and set a $51.00 price objective on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Friday, January 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average 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.