Sprinkle Financial Consultants LLC Grows Position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Sprinkle Financial Consultants LLC raised its position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 3.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,073 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 185 shares during the quarter. Sprinkle Financial Consultants LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $275,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of WMB. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake 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 valued at $1,631,288,000 after acquiring an additional 5,697,605 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 1.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 30,722,702 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,398,004,000 after purchasing an additional 520,663 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 0.9% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,239,210 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $330,470,000 after purchasing an additional 67,016 shares during the last quarter. Swiss National Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 0.3% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 3,617,300 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $165,130,000 after purchasing an additional 9,800 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC grew its position in Williams Companies by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 3,271,141 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $149,326,000 after buying an additional 108,675 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 brokerages have commented on WMB. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $55.00 price target for the company. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $55.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Scotiabank reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $51.00 target price on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, CIBC raised their price target on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $53.00.

Williams Companies Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of WMB stock opened at $55.93 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $68.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.60, a P/E/G ratio of 5.06 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a quick ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $32.65 and a fifty-two week high of $61.46. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $55.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $51.11.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted 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 15.89%. The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.52 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.45 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This is an increase from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio 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.