McBroom & Associates LLC Makes New Investment in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

McBroom & Associates LLC bought a new position in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 5,048 shares of the pipeline company's stock, valued at approximately $302,000.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Myriad Asset Management US LP acquired a new stake in shares of Williams Companies during the fourth quarter worth about $995,000. ING Groep NV boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 266.6% during 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 period. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 14.0% during 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 period. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 4.3% during 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 period. Finally, NEOS Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 31.4% during the fourth quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC now owns 72,904 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $3,946,000 after buying an additional 17,420 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company's stock.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of WMB stock traded down $0.34 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $59.74. 8,203,352 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,796,789. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $58.70 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $57.37. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1-year low of $40.41 and a 1-year high of $61.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 0.50 and a quick ratio of 0.45. The firm has a market cap of $72.85 billion, a PE ratio of 32.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 0.65.

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

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.35%. Williams Companies's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 106.95%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on WMB. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $58.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $52.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 5th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $63.00 price objective on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Williams Companies from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research report on Friday. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Williams Companies has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $61.25.

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.