Wedmont Private Capital Buys 717 Shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

by · The Cerbat Gem

Wedmont Private Capital raised its stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB – Free Report) by 3.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 19,192 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 717 shares during the quarter. Wedmont Private Capital’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $953,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of WMB. Blackstone Inc. lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 109.1% in the first quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 6,466,660 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $252,006,000 after buying an additional 3,373,800 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in Williams Companies by 21.3% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,593,482 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $403,801,000 after purchasing an additional 2,039,703 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in Williams Companies by 40.1% during the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 5,753,223 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $224,203,000 after buying an additional 1,647,469 shares in the last quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP bought a new position in Williams Companies in the 1st quarter valued at about $57,220,000. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its position in shares of Williams Companies by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 20,983,727 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $817,736,000 after buying an additional 1,175,628 shares in the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on WMB shares. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. Argus raised Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 20th. Morgan Stanley raised Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $52.00 to $58.00 in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Barclays boosted their target price on Williams Companies from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $46.08.

Read Our Latest Report on Williams Companies

Williams Companies Stock Performance

NYSE WMB opened at $49.47 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $60.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.23, a PEG ratio of 6.90 and a beta of 1.05. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $32.65 and a twelve month high of $49.94. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $45.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $42.26. The company has a quick ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $2.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 27.11%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.42 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.9 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th were paid a $0.475 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.84%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is 81.55%.

About Williams Companies

(Free Report)

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.

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