3,726 Shares in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) Bought by Orrstown Financial Services Inc.

Orrstown Financial Services Inc. bought a new stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 3,726 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $202,000.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Williams Companies by 19.0% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 35,734,666 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,631,288,000 after buying an additional 5,697,605 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 30,722,702 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,398,004,000 after acquiring an additional 520,663 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,239,210 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $330,470,000 after acquiring an additional 67,016 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank increased its stake in Williams Companies by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 3,617,300 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $165,130,000 after purchasing an additional 9,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 3.4% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 3,271,141 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $149,326,000 after purchasing an additional 108,675 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 7,951 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The stock was 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 trade represents a 23.52 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Trading Up 1.3 %

NYSE:WMB traded up $0.70 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $55.90. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 558,827 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,449,649. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $32.65 and a twelve month high of $61.46. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $56.34 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $50.58. 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 $68.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.72, a P/E/G ratio of 5.31 and a beta of 1.06.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.52 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 27.36% and a return on equity of 15.89%. Williams Companies’s revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.45 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.92 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th were paid a $0.475 dividend. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is presently 80.17%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on 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 shares of Williams Companies from $46.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. CIBC lifted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $55.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Williams Companies has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $53.00.

Williams Companies Company 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.