First National Bank of Hutchinson Invests $447,000 in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB)

First National Bank of Hutchinson purchased a new stake in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 7,485 shares of the pipeline company's stock, valued at approximately $447,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 130,356,165 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $7,054,876,000 after purchasing an additional 1,008,213 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 31,263,235 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $1,687,797,000 after buying an additional 540,533 shares during the period. 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 worth $1,025,795,000 after acquiring an additional 5,068,738 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Williams Companies by 12.5% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 15,236,940 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $824,623,000 after buying an additional 1,696,618 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Williams Companies in the 4th quarter worth $575,103,000. 86.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. TD Cowen assumed coverage on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Monday, July 7th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $67.00 target price for the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Williams Companies from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $59.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $63.00 price objective on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Williams Companies from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a report on Friday, June 13th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $61.77.

Williams Companies Trading Up 1.8%

NYSE:WMB traded up $1.05 on Thursday, reaching $58.76. 5,846,268 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,283,372. The firm has a market capitalization of $71.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.65. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52-week low of $40.41 and a 52-week high of $63.45. 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 business has a fifty day moving average of $59.38 and a 200-day moving average of $58.16.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $3.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.90 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 15.95% and a net margin of 21.18%. The company's revenue was up 10.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.59 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 13th. Williams Companies's payout ratio is currently 106.95%.

Insider Transactions at Williams Companies

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at $19,790,941.50. The trade was a 0.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.44% of the stock is 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.