6,737 Shares in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) Acquired by Kovack Advisors Inc.

Kovack Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 6,737 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $365,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of WMB. FUKOKU MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE Co lifted its stake in Williams Companies by 53.9% in the fourth quarter. FUKOKU MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE Co now owns 9,420 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $510,000 after buying an additional 3,300 shares in the last quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Williams Companies by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC now owns 180,825 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $9,786,000 after buying an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC bought a new position in Williams Companies in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $170,000. NewEdge Wealth LLC lifted its stake in Williams Companies by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC now owns 97,818 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $5,294,000 after buying an additional 4,274 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Checchi Capital Advisers LLC lifted its stake in Williams Companies by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC now owns 22,822 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,235,000 after buying an additional 366 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Williams Companies

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Chad A. Teply sold 26,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 $7,511,890.08. The trade was a 16.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on WMB. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $46.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $55.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $54.21.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of WMB opened at $58.25 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $71.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.83, a PEG ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 1.04. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1-year low of $35.38 and a 1-year high of $61.46. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $56.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $52.73. The company has a current ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The pipeline company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47. Williams Companies had a net margin of 21.17% and a return on equity of 15.85%. On average, research analysts forecast that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. This is an increase from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is currently 109.29%.

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.