9,056 Shares in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) Bought by PUREfi Wealth LLC

PUREfi Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 9,056 shares of the pipeline company's stock, valued at approximately $541,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the 4th quarter worth approximately $575,103,000. Blackstone Inc. lifted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 5,068,738 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 2,303.2% during the 4th quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 3,517,336 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $190,358,000 after buying an additional 3,370,974 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 6,407.2% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,238,490 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $133,772,000 after buying an additional 2,204,090 shares during the period. Finally, Castle Hook Partners LP lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 69.1% during the 4th quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP now owns 5,055,184 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $273,587,000 after buying an additional 2,065,906 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Williams Companies from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Wolfe Research upgraded Williams Companies from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research report on Friday, June 13th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $58.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $63.00 price objective on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $61.25.

Williams Companies Trading Up 2.2%

Shares of NYSE WMB traded up $1.32 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $60.44. The stock had a trading volume of 14,263,493 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,802,584. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $59.06 and its 200 day simple moving average is $57.44. The firm has a market cap of $73.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.47 and a beta of 0.65. Williams Companies, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $40.41 and a fifty-two week high of $61.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63, a current ratio of 0.40 and a quick ratio of 0.36.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $3.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.90 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 15.95% and a net margin of 21.18%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 10.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.59 EPS. Research analysts anticipate 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, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.31%. Williams Companies's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 106.95%.

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.