Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Has $6.99 Million Holdings in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 4.2% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 153,081 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,199 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $6,988,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Brendel Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 0.8% during the third quarter. Brendel Financial Advisors LLC now owns 51,927 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,370,000 after purchasing an additional 419 shares during the period. Valley National Advisers Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 1,855.7% during the third quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 42,029 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,918,000 after purchasing an additional 39,880 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 0.3% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 3,617,300 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $165,130,000 after purchasing an additional 9,800 shares during the period. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise raised its stake in Williams Companies by 402.9% during the third quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 91,983 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $4,199,000 after buying an additional 73,693 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Czech National Bank raised its stake in Williams Companies by 6.9% during the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 248,309 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $11,335,000 after buying an additional 16,064 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Trading Down 2.5 %

NYSE:WMB opened at $58.18 on Tuesday. 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 firm has a 50-day moving average of $51.60 and a 200-day moving average of $45.86. The company has a market cap of $70.92 billion, a PE ratio of 24.55, a PEG ratio of 6.14 and a beta of 1.03. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a one year low of $32.65 and a one year high of $60.36.

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

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.475 per share. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 80.17%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on WMB. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $52.00 to $58.00 in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. One 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $51.54.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Williams Companies news, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 7,951 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.30, for a total value of $447,641.30. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 25,858 shares in the company, valued at $1,455,805.40. The trade was a 23.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.29, for a total transaction of $90,580.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 304,200 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,777,218. The trade was a 0.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.44% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.