HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC Reduces Position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC reduced its stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 45.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 100,000 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 83,636 shares during the quarter. HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $5,412,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Barclays PLC boosted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 108,675 shares during the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Williams Companies during the third quarter worth approximately $545,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new stake in Williams Companies in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,346,000. Tidal Investments LLC raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 41,514 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,895,000 after acquiring an additional 207 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Synovus Financial Corp raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 48.8% in the 3rd quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 19,533 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $892,000 after acquiring an additional 6,409 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on WMB shares. Citigroup raised their price objective on 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 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. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. CIBC raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, March 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $56.07.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Williams Companies stock opened at $58.49 on Friday. 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 Williams Companies, Inc. has a one year low of $37.27 and a one year high of $61.67. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $57.37 and its 200 day moving average price is $55.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $71.32 billion, a PE ratio of 31.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 0.87.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its 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 net margin of 21.17% and a return on equity of 15.85%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.42%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 109.29%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Larry C. Larsen sold 8,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.94, for a total transaction of $455,520.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 81,265 shares in the company, valued at $4,627,229.10. The trade was a 8.96 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Chad A. Teply sold 26,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.46, for a total value of $1,467,960.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 133,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,511,890.08. This trade represents a 16.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 139,583 shares of company stock worth $7,563,278. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.