The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) Position Reduced by Invesco Ltd.

Invesco Ltd. lowered its position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB - Free Report) by 1.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,217,487 shares of the pipeline company's stock after selling 134,017 shares during the quarter. Invesco Ltd. owned 1.08% of Williams Companies worth $715,330,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. EP Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in Williams Companies by 52.5% during the third quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 17,706 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $808,000 after acquiring an additional 6,099 shares during the last quarter. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Williams Companies during the third quarter worth $30,000. MML Investors Services LLC increased its position in Williams Companies by 21.7% during the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 203,206 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $9,276,000 after buying an additional 36,213 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 2.5% in the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 388,123 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $17,718,000 after acquiring an additional 9,471 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Groupama Asset Managment lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 37.4% in the third quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 79,315 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $3,621,000 after acquiring an additional 21,585 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company's stock.

Remove Ads

Insider Transactions at Williams Companies

In other news, SVP Larry C. Larsen sold 8,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.94, for a total transaction of $455,520.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 81,265 shares in the company, valued at $4,627,229.10. This trade represents a 8.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Chad A. Teply sold 26,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.46, for a total value of $1,467,960.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 133,048 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,511,890.08. This trade represents a 16.35 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 139,583 shares of company stock valued at $7,563,278 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.44% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WMB has been the subject of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $58.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Williams Companies from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on Williams Companies from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $56.07.

Williams Companies Trading Up 2.1 %

NYSE WMB traded up $1.17 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $56.24. The company's stock had a trading volume of 7,477,342 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,661,726. The firm has a market capitalization of $68.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 0.50 and a quick ratio of 0.45. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52-week low of $37.18 and a 52-week high of $61.67. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $57.22 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $55.50.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The pipeline company reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.47. Williams Companies had a net margin of 21.17% and a return on equity of 15.85%. Research analysts expect that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.56%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Williams Companies's previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. Williams Companies's payout ratio is currently 109.29%.

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.