Oak Thistle LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Oak Thistle LLC reduced its position in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 83.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,375 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 37,159 shares during the period. Oak Thistle LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $399,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of WMB. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI grew its position in shares of Williams Companies by 78.7% in the 2nd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 12,994 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $552,000 after buying an additional 5,721 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its stake in Williams Companies by 5.8% in the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,016,985 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $43,222,000 after acquiring an additional 56,000 shares during the period. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Williams Companies by 0.6% in the second quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 263,620 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $11,204,000 after acquiring an additional 1,468 shares in the last quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT boosted its holdings in Williams Companies by 7.7% in the second quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT now owns 9,789 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $416,000 after acquiring an additional 700 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 8.3% in the 2nd quarter. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co now owns 25,120 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,068,000 after purchasing an additional 1,920 shares in the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WMB has been the topic of a number of research reports. CIBC lifted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada upped 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. Citigroup raised their target price on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Scotiabank reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $51.00 price target on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Williams Companies has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $53.00.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of WMB opened at $59.13 on Friday. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $32.65 and a twelve month high of $60.36. The company has a market capitalization of $72.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.36 and a beta of 1.06. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $56.00 and a 200 day moving average of $49.52. 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 posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.52 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 15.89% and a net margin of 27.36%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.45 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th were paid a dividend of $0.475 per share. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is currently 80.17%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 7,951 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.30, for a total transaction of $447,641.30. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 25,858 shares in the company, valued at $1,455,805.40. This represents a 23.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

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.