U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC Purchases 1,654 Shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 2.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 70,232 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 1,654 shares during the quarter. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $3,801,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 19.0% in 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 purchasing an additional 5,697,605 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in 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 worth $1,398,004,000 after purchasing an additional 520,663 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Williams Companies by 0.9% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,239,210 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $330,470,000 after buying an additional 67,016 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 3,617,300 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $165,130,000 after buying an additional 9,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC grew its position in shares of Williams Companies by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 3,271,141 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $149,326,000 after buying an additional 108,675 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WMB has been the topic of a number of research reports. 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 research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Barclays raised their target price on Williams Companies from $46.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Mizuho upped their price target on Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Scotiabank reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $51.00 target price on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Friday, January 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $53.00.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Shares of Williams Companies stock opened at $55.43 on Monday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $56.12 and its 200 day simple moving average is $50.80. The company has a current ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12 month low of $32.65 and a 12 month high of $61.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $67.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 1.05.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.52 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 27.36% and a return on equity of 15.89%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.45 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.61%. This is a positive change from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is 80.17%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 7,951 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.30, for a total transaction of $447,641.30. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 25,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,455,805.40. This represents a 23.52 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Profile

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.