Principal Financial Group Inc. Cuts Stock Holdings in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB)

Principal Financial Group Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB - Free Report) by 1.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,530,614 shares of the pipeline company's stock after selling 27,163 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.13% of Williams Companies worth $91,469,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of WMB. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Williams Companies by 0.8% during 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 period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 540,533 shares in the last quarter. Blackstone Inc. lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 36.5% in the 4th quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 18,954,088 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $1,025,795,000 after purchasing an additional 5,068,738 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 12.5% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 15,236,940 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $824,623,000 after purchasing an additional 1,696,618 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the fourth quarter valued at about $575,103,000. 86.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Williams Companies 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 sale, the senior vice president directly owned 315,645 shares in the company, valued at $19,790,941.50. This represents a 0.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.44% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on WMB. Barclays increased their target price on Williams Companies from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Wolfe Research raised shares of Williams Companies from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a report on Friday, June 13th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $63.00 target price on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Friday, May 16th. Finally, Scotiabank raised 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, June 5th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $61.25.

Williams Companies Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of Williams Companies stock opened at $58.47 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $59.51 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $57.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.40. Williams Companies, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $40.41 and a fifty-two week high of $63.45. The company has a market cap of $71.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.33 and a beta of 0.65.

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

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Friday, June 13th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.42%. The ex-dividend date was 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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