Advisors Capital Management LLC Purchases 5,403 Shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Advisors Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB - Free Report) by 0.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 751,390 shares of the pipeline company's stock after acquiring an additional 5,403 shares during the period. Advisors Capital Management LLC owned 0.06% of Williams Companies worth $40,665,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of WMB. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Williams Companies by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 130,356,165 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $7,054,876,000 after acquiring an additional 1,008,213 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Williams Companies by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 31,263,235 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $1,687,797,000 after buying an additional 540,533 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Williams Companies in the 4th quarter worth $575,103,000. Amundi raised its position in shares of Williams Companies by 28.8% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 8,781,963 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $495,215,000 after buying an additional 1,964,421 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bahl & Gaynor Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 8,425,933 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $456,012,000 after acquiring an additional 234,423 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on WMB shares. Barclays upped their price objective on Williams Companies from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $58.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Truist Financial lifted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, CIBC boosted their target price on Williams Companies from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Williams Companies currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $56.07.

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 value of $1,467,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Larry C. Larsen sold 8,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.94, for a total value of $455,520.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 81,265 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,627,229.10. The trade was a 8.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 139,583 shares of company stock worth $7,563,278 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.44% of the company's stock.

Williams Companies Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE WMB traded up $0.23 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $58.49. 6,895,827 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,631,570. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $57.37 and a 200-day moving average price of $55.72. 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 company has a market cap of $71.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.96, a PEG ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 0.87. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $37.27 and a 52 week high of $61.67.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The pipeline company reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.47. Williams Companies had a net margin of 21.17% and a return on equity of 15.85%. Research analysts anticipate that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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 presently 109.29%.

About Williams Companies

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.