Kestra Investment Management LLC Acquires Shares of 21,899 The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Kestra Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 21,899 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,000,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in WMB. DNB Asset Management AS lifted its stake in Williams Companies by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 217,662 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $9,251,000 after acquiring an additional 1,753 shares in the last quarter. Olistico Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Williams Companies in the 2nd quarter worth about $124,000. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Williams Companies by 10.7% in the 2nd quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 20,154 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $857,000 after purchasing an additional 1,946 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 4.1% during the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 56,871 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,417,000 after buying an additional 2,236 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 14.4% during the 2nd quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC now owns 43,299 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,840,000 after buying an additional 5,445 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WMB has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Mizuho increased their price target on Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Citigroup raised their target price on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $55.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company 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 given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $51.79.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Williams Companies stock opened at $58.52 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $71.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.69, a PEG ratio of 6.00 and a beta of 1.05. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a one year low of $32.65 and a one year high of $60.36. 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 business has a fifty day moving average price of $52.65 and a 200-day moving average price of $46.38.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 the consensus estimate of $2.52 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.45 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.92 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 80.17%.

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.