TCW Group Inc. Buys 427 Shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

TCW Group Inc. boosted its stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 2.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 17,052 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 427 shares during the period. TCW Group Inc.’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $923,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in WMB. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of 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 valued at $1,631,288,000 after acquiring an additional 5,697,605 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in shares of 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 valued at $86,605,000 after acquiring an additional 1,555,667 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI grew its position in shares of 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 valued at $60,909,000 after acquiring an additional 922,550 shares during the period. Castle Hook Partners LP grew its position in shares of 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 valued at $136,461,000 after acquiring an additional 718,915 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of 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 valued at $1,398,004,000 after acquiring an additional 520,663 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Scotiabank reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $51.00 price objective on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Friday, January 10th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $55.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Mizuho lifted their target price 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. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $46.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $53.29.

Williams Companies Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of WMB stock opened at $57.28 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $56.21 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $52.41. The company has a quick ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67. The stock has a market cap of $69.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.30, a PEG ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 1.05. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $34.54 and a 52 week high of $61.46.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The pipeline company reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.47. Williams Companies had a net margin of 21.17% and a return on equity of 15.85%. Analysts predict that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. This is an increase from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is currently 109.29%.

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.