AlphaCore Capital LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB)

Key Points

• AlphaCore Capital LLC significantly increased its holdings in Williams Companies by 99.2% in Q1, acquiring a total of 9,000 shares now valued at approximately $538,000.
• Williams Companies recently reported $0.46 earnings per share for the last quarter, falling short of analysts' expectations of $0.49, although revenue increased 19.0% year-over-year.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.50 per share, which translates to an annual yield of 3.5% and will be paid on September 29th to shareholders of record by September 12th.

AlphaCore Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB - Free Report) by 99.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,000 shares of the pipeline company's stock after acquiring an additional 4,482 shares during the quarter. AlphaCore Capital LLC's holdings in Williams Companies were worth $538,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in WMB. Blackstone Inc. grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 36.5% during the 4th quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 18,954,088 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $1,025,795,000 after buying an additional 5,068,738 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 45.0% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 11,339,078 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $677,623,000 after buying an additional 3,519,370 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its stake in Williams Companies by 2,303.2% during the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 3,517,336 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $190,358,000 after buying an additional 3,370,974 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Williams Companies by 6,407.2% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,238,490 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $133,772,000 after buying an additional 2,204,090 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Castle Hook Partners LP boosted its stake in Williams Companies by 69.1% during the fourth quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP now owns 5,055,184 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $273,587,000 after buying an additional 2,065,906 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $63.00 price target on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Wolfe Research upgraded Williams Companies from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research report on Friday, June 13th. Scotiabank upped their price objective on Williams Companies from $59.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Williams Companies from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Williams Companies from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Saturday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Williams Companies currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $62.00.

Williams Companies Trading Up 0.4%

WMB traded up $0.21 during trading on Monday, hitting $58.10. 4,764,395 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,803,443. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a current ratio of 0.54. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $59.32 and a 200 day simple moving average of $58.25. The firm has a market cap of $70.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.66. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $42.79 and a 1 year high of $63.45.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Monday, August 4th. The pipeline company reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.49 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $2.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.90 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 21.63% and a return on equity of 16.23%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 19.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.43 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 12th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 12th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.4%. Williams Companies's payout ratio is 100.50%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.68, for a total value of $119,360.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 313,645 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $18,718,333.60. The trade was a 0.63% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.