StrongBox Wealth LLC Makes New $333,000 Investment in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

StrongBox Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 6,145 shares of the pipeline company's stock, valued at approximately $333,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WMB. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Williams Companies in the 4th quarter worth $485,000. Essex Savings Bank bought a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the fourth quarter valued at about $207,000. USA Financial Formulas acquired a new stake in Williams Companies during the fourth quarter worth about $1,245,000. Burney Co. grew its position in Williams Companies by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Burney Co. now owns 48,557 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $2,628,000 after buying an additional 1,425 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Apella Capital LLC bought a new position in Williams Companies during the fourth quarter valued at about $219,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on WMB. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. CIBC lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $46.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $55.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Williams Companies from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their price target for the stock from $52.00 to $58.00 in a research note on Friday, October 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $53.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 7,951 shares of Williams Companies 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 in the company, valued at $1,455,805.40. This trade represents a 23.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of WMB stock traded up $1.12 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $59.13. 7,016,055 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,954,684. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $32.65 and a 52 week high of $60.36. The stock has a market cap of $72.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.36 and a beta of 1.06. 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 stock's 50-day moving average is $56.00 and its 200-day moving average is $49.52.

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

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

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