Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC Boosts Stock Position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC boosted its position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB - Free Report) by 172.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 141,046 shares of the pipeline company's stock after purchasing an additional 89,254 shares during the quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC's holdings in Williams Companies were worth $7,633,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in WMB. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 3.4% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 3,271,141 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $149,326,000 after purchasing an additional 108,675 shares in the last quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 12.2% in the fourth quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC now owns 7,761 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $420,000 after purchasing an additional 841 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 15,166 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $821,000 after purchasing an additional 911 shares in the last quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 12.5% in the fourth quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 29,974 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $1,622,000 after purchasing an additional 3,324 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Atomi Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 42.4% in the fourth quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. now owns 17,511 shares of the pipeline company's stock worth $948,000 after purchasing an additional 5,210 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Micheal G. Dunn sold 96,687 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.04, for a total transaction of $5,128,278.48. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 714,693 shares of the company's stock, valued at $37,907,316.72. The trade was a 11.92% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Chad A. Teply sold 26,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.46, for a total value of $1,467,960.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 133,048 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,511,890.08. The trade was a 16.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 139,583 shares of company stock valued at $7,563,278. Insiders own 0.44% of the company's stock.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Shares of Williams Companies stock traded up $1.29 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $60.28. 4,430,912 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 7,522,004. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 0.50 and a quick ratio of 0.45. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $40.06 and a 1 year high of $61.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $73.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.94, a PEG ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 0.66. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $58.34 and a 200-day simple moving average of $57.12.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $3.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.90 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 15.85% and a net margin of 21.17%. 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 posted $0.59 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that The 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. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.32%. Williams Companies's payout ratio is 106.95%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup raised their price target on Williams Companies from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Truist Financial raised their price target on Williams Companies from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Williams Companies from $58.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and set a $63.00 price target on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Friday, May 16th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price target on Williams Companies from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $60.50.

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.