Brevan Howard Capital Management LP Invests $792,000 in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Brevan Howard Capital Management LP purchased a new position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 14,632 shares of the pipeline company's stock, valued at approximately $792,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Williams Companies during the fourth quarter worth about $575,103,000. Marshall Wace LLP increased its holdings in Williams Companies by 2,303.2% during the 4th quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 3,517,336 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $190,358,000 after purchasing an additional 3,370,974 shares in the last quarter. Amundi raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 28.8% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 8,781,963 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $495,215,000 after purchasing an additional 1,964,421 shares during the last quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the fourth quarter worth approximately $98,033,000. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 1,107.0% in the fourth quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,936,266 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $104,791,000 after purchasing an additional 1,775,849 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 8,896 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.50, for a total value of $511,520.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 22,339 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,284,492.50. This represents a 28.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Chad A. Teply sold 26,000 shares of the company's 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 directly 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 139,583 shares of company stock valued at $7,563,278 over the last quarter. 0.44% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WMB has been the subject of several analyst reports. Barclays increased their price objective on Williams Companies from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. CIBC increased their price objective on Williams Companies from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Scotiabank increased their price objective on Williams Companies from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Williams Companies from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Williams Companies from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $60.50.

Williams Companies Price Performance

NYSE WMB traded down $0.62 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $57.04. The company had a trading volume of 6,472,872 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,656,216. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $39.57 and a 52 week high of $61.67. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $57.91 and a 200 day simple moving average of $56.73. 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 has a market capitalization of $69.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.17, a PEG ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 0.66.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.05. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 15.85% and a net margin of 21.17%. The company had revenue of $3.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.90 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.59 earnings per share. Williams Companies's revenue was up 10.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. Williams Companies's dividend payout ratio is currently 106.95%.

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.