Aptus Capital Advisors LLC Increases Holdings in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Aptus Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 12,357 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 492 shares during the quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $564,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of WMB. SouthState Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Williams Companies during the 2nd quarter valued at about $31,000. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Williams Companies in the second quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 50.4% during the third quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 752 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 252 shares during the period. Quarry LP acquired a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the second quarter worth $35,000. Finally, Kimelman & Baird LLC acquired a new stake in Williams Companies during the 2nd quarter valued at $42,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WMB has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Truist Financial boosted their price target on Williams Companies from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Barclays increased their target price on Williams Companies from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $52.00 to $58.00 in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Finally, Bank of America began coverage on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $55.00 target price for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $51.54.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Shares of WMB stock opened at $56.55 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $68.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.86, a PEG ratio of 5.73 and a beta of 1.03. The business has a 50 day moving average of $49.69 and a two-hundred day moving average of $44.81. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $32.65 and a 52 week high of $57.33. The company has a quick ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by $0.01. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 15.89% and a net margin of 27.36%. The business had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.52 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.45 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a $0.475 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.36%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 80.17%.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.29, for a total transaction of $90,580.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 304,200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,777,218. The trade was a 0.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 7,951 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 25,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,455,805.40. This trade represents a 23.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Williams Companies 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.