Caprock Group LLC Has $2.16 Million Stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Caprock Group LLC lifted its position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB - Free Report) by 17.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 39,813 shares of the pipeline company's stock after purchasing an additional 5,853 shares during the quarter. Caprock Group LLC's holdings in Williams Companies were worth $2,155,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in WMB. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Williams Companies by 19.0% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 35,734,666 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $1,631,288,000 after buying an additional 5,697,605 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased 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 acquiring an additional 1,555,667 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI raised its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 224.1% in the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,334,307 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $60,909,000 after buying an additional 922,550 shares during the period. Castle Hook Partners LP boosted its stake in shares of 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 period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Williams Companies by 1.7% during 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 purchasing an additional 520,663 shares in the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have issued reports on WMB shares. CIBC lifted their target price on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Williams Companies from $55.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their price target on Williams Companies from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Williams Companies has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $53.00.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In related news, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 7,951 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.30, for a total transaction of $447,641.30. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Williams Companies Stock Up 2.1 %

NYSE WMB traded up $1.14 on Wednesday, hitting $56.86. 6,781,847 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 7,531,037. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $32.65 and a twelve month high of $61.46. 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 company has a market capitalization 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. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $56.03 and a 200 day moving average of $51.03.

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 (EPS) 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.52 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.45 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.91 earnings per share 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. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This is a boost from Williams Companies's previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.52%. Williams Companies's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 80.17%.

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.