Brookstone Capital Management Buys 8,654 Shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB)

Brookstone Capital Management raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB - Free Report) by 43.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 28,412 shares of the pipeline company's stock after buying an additional 8,654 shares during the period. Brookstone Capital Management's holdings in Williams Companies were worth $1,698,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew 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 period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 31,263,235 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $1,687,797,000 after purchasing an additional 540,533 shares in the last quarter. Blackstone Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 36.5% in the fourth quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 18,954,088 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $1,025,795,000 after purchasing an additional 5,068,738 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 12.5% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 15,236,940 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $824,623,000 after acquiring an additional 1,696,618 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Williams Companies during the fourth quarter worth about $575,103,000. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Williams Companies

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the business's 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 approximately $19,790,941.50. The trade was a 0.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.44% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective 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. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Williams Companies from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a report on Friday, June 13th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $63.00 target price on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target 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. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $61.69.

Williams Companies Trading Down 1.4%

NYSE:WMB traded down $0.79 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $57.69. The company had a trading volume of 9,722,167 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,048,725. The company has a current ratio of 0.40, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63. The company has a market cap of $70.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.85, a P/E/G ratio of 4.33 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a 50-day moving average of $59.49 and a 200 day moving average of $57.91. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $40.41 and a 1 year high of $63.45.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.05. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 15.95% and a net margin of 21.18%. The firm had revenue of $3.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.90 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.59 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side 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 declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 13th. Williams Companies's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 106.95%.

Williams Companies Company 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.