Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY Raises Stock Holdings in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB)

Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB - Free Report) by 3.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 709,113 shares of the pipeline company's stock after purchasing an additional 25,016 shares during the quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY owned approximately 0.06% of Williams Companies worth $42,377,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in WMB. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in Williams Companies by 40.9% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 13,680 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $740,000 after purchasing an additional 3,969 shares in the last quarter. Modera Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the 4th quarter valued at about $262,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 22.4% during the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 42,370 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $2,293,000 after acquiring an additional 7,767 shares during the period. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in Williams Companies in the 4th quarter worth approximately $464,000. Finally, Plato Investment Management Ltd increased its holdings in Williams Companies by 625.2% in the 4th quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 2,016 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $110,000 after acquiring an additional 1,738 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on WMB. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $63.00 price target on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Williams Companies from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research note on Friday, June 13th. Barclays increased their price target 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. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Williams Companies from $58.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price target on Williams Companies from $52.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 5th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Williams Companies has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $61.25.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of WMB stock traded down $0.68 on Friday, reaching $58.47. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,606,763 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,044,355. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $59.51 and its 200-day simple moving average is $57.84. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $40.41 and a 1 year high of $63.45. The company has a market capitalization of $71.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.33 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a current ratio of 0.40, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63.

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

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 13th. Williams Companies's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 106.95%.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.70, for a total value of $125,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 315,645 shares in the company, valued at $19,790,941.50. This trade represents a 0.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.44% of the company's stock.

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.