Ballentine Partners LLC Has $1.62 Million Stock Holdings in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Ballentine Partners LLC raised its holdings in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 12.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 29,974 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,324 shares during the quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $1,622,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of WMB. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Williams Companies by 19.0% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 35,734,666 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,631,288,000 after acquiring an additional 5,697,605 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in Williams Companies by 3,490.2% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,600,239 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $86,605,000 after acquiring an additional 1,555,667 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI grew its position in Williams Companies by 224.1% during the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,334,307 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $60,909,000 after acquiring an additional 922,550 shares during the last quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP grew its position in Williams Companies by 31.7% during the 3rd quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP now owns 2,989,278 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $136,461,000 after acquiring an additional 718,915 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Williams Companies by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 30,722,702 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,398,004,000 after acquiring an additional 520,663 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on WMB shares. Scotiabank restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $51.00 price objective on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Friday, January 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Barclays upped their price target on Williams Companies from $46.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Mizuho upped 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. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price target on Williams Companies from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $53.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 25,858 shares of the company’s stock, 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 SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.44% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Williams Companies Stock Up 2.5 %

Shares of NYSE:WMB opened at $60.62 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $56.18 and its 200-day moving average is $49.92. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $32.65 and a 1 year high of $60.91. 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 company has a market capitalization of $73.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.58, a P/E/G ratio of 5.30 and a beta of 1.06.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.52 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.45 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th were paid a dividend of $0.475 per share. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.13%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 80.17%.

About Williams Companies

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.