Tobam Acquires New Stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Tobam bought a new stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 1,833 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $99,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WMB. AlphaMark Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Williams Companies during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Williams Companies during the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. Financial Life Planners purchased a new stake in Williams Companies in the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 50.4% in the 3rd quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 752 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 252 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FSA Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the 3rd quarter worth $38,000. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Bank of America began coverage on Williams Companies in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $55.00 price objective for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective 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. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $55.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Scotiabank reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $51.00 price target on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Friday, January 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $53.00.

Williams Companies Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of WMB opened at $55.93 on Friday. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12 month low of $32.65 and a 12 month high of $61.46. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $55.96 and its two-hundred day moving average is $51.11. 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 stock has a market cap of $68.18 billion, a PE ratio of 23.60, a P/E/G ratio of 5.06 and a beta of 1.04.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion for 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%. Williams Companies’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.45 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. 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%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is 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.