Mills Wealth Advisors LLC Invests $438,000 in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB)

Mills Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 7,322 shares of the pipeline company's stock, valued at approximately $438,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 1.2% in the first quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 577,123 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $34,489,000 after acquiring an additional 6,816 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC increased its position in Williams Companies by 27.5% during the 1st quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 402,967 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $24,081,000 after purchasing an additional 87,031 shares in the last quarter. Kessler Investment Group LLC bought a new position in Williams Companies in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $327,000. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in 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 valued at $5,130,000 after buying an additional 10,561 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC increased its holdings 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 in the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Williams Companies Trading Down 1.1%

WMB traded down $0.68 during trading on Friday, reaching $58.47. 4,606,763 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 7,044,355. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63. The stock's 50-day moving average is $59.51 and its 200 day moving average is $57.84. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12 month low of $40.41 and a 12 month high of $63.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $71.29 billion, a PE ratio of 31.26, a P/E/G ratio of 4.33 and a beta of 0.65.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 15.95% and a net margin of 21.18%. The company had revenue of $3.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.90 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.59 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.42%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 13th. Williams Companies's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 106.95%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on WMB. Barclays boosted their price objective on Williams Companies from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Wolfe Research upgraded Williams Companies from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a report on Friday, June 13th. 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 report on Tuesday, March 25th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $63.00 price target on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $61.25.

Insider Buying and Selling at Williams Companies

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $62.70, for a total transaction of $125,400.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 315,645 shares of the company's stock, valued at $19,790,941.50. This represents a 0.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.44% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.