Advisor Resource Council Purchases New Stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Advisor Resource Council bought a new stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 7,013 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $320,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. CVA Family Office LLC grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 18.7% in the third quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 1,578 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $72,000 after purchasing an additional 249 shares during the period. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton increased its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 50.4% during the 3rd quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 752 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 252 shares during the last quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Williams Companies by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 9,298 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $395,000 after buying an additional 257 shares during the period. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. lifted its holdings in Williams Companies by 0.8% in the second quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 31,206 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,326,000 after acquiring an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. increased its stake in Williams Companies by 3.5% during the third quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 8,061 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $368,000 after acquiring an additional 275 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley upgraded Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $52.00 to $58.00 in a report on Friday, October 4th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday. Scotiabank boosted their target price on Williams Companies from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on Williams Companies from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $50.38.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Williams Companies stock opened at $55.44 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $48.40 and a 200-day simple moving average of $44.14. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12 month low of $32.65 and a 12 month high of $55.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64, a current ratio of 0.45 and a quick ratio of 0.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $67.57 billion, a PE ratio of 23.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.19 and a beta of 1.03.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.01. Williams Companies had a net margin of 27.36% and a return on equity of 15.90%. The business had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.52 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.45 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a $0.475 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.43%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 80.17%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.29, for a total value of $90,580.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 304,200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,777,218. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.