4,145 Shares in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) Bought by Perennial Advisors LLC

Perennial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 4,145 shares of the pipeline company's stock, valued at approximately $248,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Myriad Asset Management US LP bought a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the fourth quarter worth $995,000. ING Groep NV increased its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 266.6% in the fourth quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 155,694 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $8,426,000 after buying an additional 113,227 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 183,317 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $9,224,000 after buying an additional 7,618 shares during the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 14.0% in the first quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 85,839 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $5,130,000 after buying an additional 10,561 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NEOS Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Williams Companies by 31.4% in the fourth quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC now owns 72,904 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $3,946,000 after purchasing an additional 17,420 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Williams Companies

In other news, SVP Larry C. Larsen sold 8,000 shares of the company's 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 owns 81,265 shares in the company, valued at $4,627,229.10. This represents a 8.96% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.44% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on WMB shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. Citigroup lifted 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. Morgan Stanley lifted 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. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $63.00 price objective on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Friday, May 16th. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $52.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Thursday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Williams Companies currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $61.25.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Williams Companies stock opened at $60.56 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $73.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.09, a PEG ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 0.65. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $40.41 and a 1 year high of $61.67. The business has a 50-day moving average of $58.43 and a 200-day moving average of $57.34. The company has a current ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67.

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

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

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 3.30%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 13th. Williams Companies's payout ratio is 106.95%.

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.

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