Balboa Wealth Partners Boosts Stock Holdings in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Balboa Wealth Partners lifted its holdings in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 66.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,208 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 4,076 shares during the quarter. Balboa Wealth Partners’ holdings in Williams Companies were worth $552,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of WMB. Apollon Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Williams Companies by 6.3% in the 3rd quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 32,120 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,466,000 after acquiring an additional 1,917 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Williams Companies by 1.4% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 2,873,473 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $131,174,000 after purchasing an additional 38,594 shares during the last quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in Williams Companies by 6.9% in the third quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 11,829 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $540,000 after purchasing an additional 764 shares in the last quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP bought a new stake in Williams Companies during the third quarter valued at approximately $322,000. Finally, Aptus Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in Williams Companies by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 12,357 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $564,000 after buying an additional 492 shares in the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Chad A. Teply sold 26,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.46, for a total transaction of $1,467,960.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 133,048 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,511,890.08. The trade was a 16.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Micheal G. Dunn sold 96,687 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.04, for a total value of $5,128,278.48. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 714,693 shares in the company, valued at approximately $37,907,316.72. This represents a 11.92 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 139,583 shares of company stock valued at $7,563,278 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Truist Financial lifted their price target on Williams Companies from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $46.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. 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, Citigroup increased their target price on Williams Companies from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. 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. According to data from MarketBeat, Williams Companies presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.07.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Williams Companies stock opened at $56.08 on Friday. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $36.56 and a fifty-two week high of $61.46. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $56.76 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $53.37. 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 stock has a market cap of $68.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.64, a PEG ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 1.03.

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

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. 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 3.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 109.29%.

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.