Great Lakes Retirement Inc. Has $10.70 Million Stock Position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Great Lakes Retirement Inc. lifted its stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 5.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 234,482 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 12,650 shares during the period. Williams Companies comprises approximately 1.4% of Great Lakes Retirement Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 19th largest holding. Great Lakes Retirement Inc.’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $10,704,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of WMB. SouthState Corp acquired a new position in Williams Companies in the second quarter valued at about $31,000. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Williams Companies during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $34,000. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in Williams Companies during the 2nd quarter valued at $35,000. Kimelman & Baird LLC bought a new position in Williams Companies in the 2nd quarter valued at $42,000. Finally, EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new position in Williams Companies in the first quarter worth $50,000. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on WMB shares. Citigroup raised their target price on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $52.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Friday, October 4th. CIBC upped their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on Williams Companies from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $48.62.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.29, for a total value of $90,580.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 304,200 shares in the company, valued at $13,777,218. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:WMB opened at $52.24 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $46.83 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $43.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a current ratio of 0.45. The company has a market capitalization of $63.67 billion, a PE ratio of 22.42, a PEG ratio of 5.87 and a beta of 1.05. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $32.65 and a 52 week high of $52.82.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.05. Williams Companies had a net margin of 27.11% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The business had revenue of $2.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.42 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 27th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th were paid a dividend of $0.475 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.64%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is 81.55%.

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.