Heritage Oak Wealth Advisors LLC Makes New $345,000 Investment in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Heritage Oak Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 7,556 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $345,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its position in Williams Companies by 5.9% during the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 20,983,727 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $817,736,000 after purchasing an additional 1,175,628 shares during the last quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. now owns 12,670,175 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $538,482,000 after purchasing an additional 144,713 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 3.3% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,648,918 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $410,064,000 after buying an additional 311,530 shares during the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 13.4% in the 1st quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP now owns 8,540,611 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $332,828,000 after buying an additional 1,010,658 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bahl & Gaynor Inc. increased its holdings in Williams Companies by 8.8% in the second quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 7,664,152 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $325,726,000 after buying an additional 618,056 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on WMB shares. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $52.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Friday, October 4th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Bank of America assumed coverage on Williams Companies in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $55.00 price target for the company. Barclays increased their price objective on Williams Companies from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Williams Companies currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $48.62.

Williams Companies Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of Williams Companies stock traded down $0.04 during trading on Friday, hitting $52.58. 1,382,197 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,229,778. The firm has a market capitalization of $64.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.87 and a beta of 1.05. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $46.83 and its 200 day moving average price is $43.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64, a current ratio of 0.45 and a quick ratio of 0.39. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1-year low of $32.65 and a 1-year high of $52.85.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its earnings results on Monday, August 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $2.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 27.11% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.42 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th were issued a $0.475 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.61%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 81.55%.

Insider Transactions at Williams Companies

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.29, for a total value of $90,580.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 304,200 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,777,218. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.