Portside Wealth Group LLC Lowers Position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Portside Wealth Group LLC cut its stake in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 13.7% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 24,859 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 3,947 shares during the period. Portside Wealth Group LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $1,135,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Blackstone Inc. lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 109.1% during the first quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 6,466,660 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $252,006,000 after purchasing an additional 3,373,800 shares in the last quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP bought a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the 1st quarter worth approximately $57,220,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 20,983,727 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $817,736,000 after buying an additional 1,175,628 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 20.1% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 6,117,298 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $259,985,000 after buying an additional 1,024,158 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BROOKFIELD Corp ON grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 11.8% in the first quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 5,896,375 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $229,782,000 after acquiring an additional 623,820 shares in the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on WMB. StockNews.com lowered Williams Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Williams Companies has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $50.38.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

NYSE:WMB opened at $55.44 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $48.40 and its 200 day moving average is $44.14. The firm has a market cap of $67.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.39, a PEG ratio of 6.19 and a beta of 1.03. 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 Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52-week low of $32.65 and a 52-week high of $55.79.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.01. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 15.90% and a net margin of 27.36%. The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.52 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.45 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a $0.475 dividend. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is presently 80.17%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Williams Companies

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 304,200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,777,218. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 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.