8,582 Shares in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) Purchased by SBI Securities Co. Ltd.

SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 8,582 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $464,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Williams Companies by 19.0% in 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 purchasing an additional 5,697,605 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 1.7% during 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 buying an additional 520,663 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings 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 buying an additional 67,016 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank increased 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 buying an additional 9,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 108,675 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on WMB. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. CIBC raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $55.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $54.93.

Insider Buying and Selling at Williams Companies

In other news, SVP Chad A. Teply sold 26,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.46, for a total transaction of $1,467,960.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 133,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,511,890.08. This trade represents a 16.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of WMB stock opened at $56.90 on Wednesday. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52-week low of $35.74 and a 52-week high of $61.46. The stock has a market cap of $69.38 billion, a PE ratio of 31.09, a PEG ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.50. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $56.65 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $52.98.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The pipeline company reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47. Williams Companies had a net margin of 21.17% and a return on equity of 15.85%. As a group, analysts forecast that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.51%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 109.29%.

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.