Diligent Investors LLC Boosts Stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Diligent Investors LLC boosted its stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 5.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 20,392 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,103 shares during the period. Diligent Investors LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $1,104,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. EP Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 17,889 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $968,000 after buying an additional 183 shares during the period. Colonial Trust Co SC increased its stake in Williams Companies by 6.7% during the fourth quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC now owns 3,472 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $188,000 after purchasing an additional 219 shares during the period. CoreCap Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 21.2% during the fourth quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC now owns 17,181 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $930,000 after purchasing an additional 3,000 shares in the last quarter. Crestline Management LP boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 131.1% in the fourth quarter. Crestline Management LP now owns 13,189 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $714,000 after purchasing an additional 7,483 shares during the period. Finally, Castle Hook Partners LP grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 69.1% in the fourth quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP now owns 5,055,184 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $273,587,000 after purchasing an additional 2,065,906 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on WMB shares. Truist Financial increased their price target on Williams Companies from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. CIBC boosted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $57.77.

Williams Companies Stock Down 2.5 %

Williams Companies stock opened at $58.65 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $57.89 and a two-hundred day moving average of $56.58. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $38.76 and a twelve month high of $61.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $71.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.05, a PEG ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 0.66. The company has a current ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $3.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.90 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 15.85% and a net margin of 21.17%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.59 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.41%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 109.29%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Larry C. Larsen sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 81,265 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,627,229.10. This represents a 8.96 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Chad A. Teply sold 26,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.46, for a total value of $1,467,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 133,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,511,890.08. This represents a 16.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

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.