Great Lakes Retirement Inc. Sells 6,549 Shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Great Lakes Retirement Inc. lowered its stake in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB - Free Report) by 2.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 227,933 shares of the pipeline company's stock after selling 6,549 shares during the period. Williams Companies accounts for approximately 1.6% of Great Lakes Retirement Inc.'s portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest holding. Great Lakes Retirement Inc.'s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $12,336,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in WMB. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of 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 worth $1,631,288,000 after acquiring an additional 5,697,605 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in shares of Williams Companies by 3,490.2% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,600,239 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $86,605,000 after buying an additional 1,555,667 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI raised its position 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 in the last quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP raised its position in shares of Williams Companies by 31.7% in the third quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP now owns 2,989,278 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $136,461,000 after buying an additional 718,915 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Williams Companies by 1.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 30,722,702 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $1,398,004,000 after buying an additional 520,663 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company's stock.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. CIBC increased their price objective on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Truist Financial increased their price objective on Williams Companies from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday. Barclays increased their target price on Williams Companies from $46.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Mizuho increased their target price on Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Scotiabank reissued a "sector perform" rating and issued a $51.00 target price on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Friday, January 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $53.29.

Williams Companies Stock Down 0.8 %

WMB traded down $0.46 on Friday, hitting $57.00. The company had a trading volume of 7,440,826 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,491,523. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 0.57 and a quick ratio of 0.51. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52-week low of $33.03 and a 52-week high of $61.46. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $55.85 and a 200-day simple moving average of $51.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $69.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.05, a P/E/G ratio of 5.06 and a beta of 1.04.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The pipeline company reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.47. Williams Companies had a net margin of 27.36% and a return on equity of 15.89%. As a group, equities 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 issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.51%. This is a positive change from Williams Companies's previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Williams Companies's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 80.17%.

Williams Companies Company 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.