Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Raises Position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System raised its position in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 1.5% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,134,141 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after acquiring an additional 16,303 shares during the quarter. Williams Companies makes up approximately 0.8% of Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings, making the stock its 16th largest position. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System owned 0.09% of Williams Companies worth $42,474,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Williams Companies in the fourth quarter worth $306,417,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 35.1% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,553,779 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $321,867,000 after acquiring an additional 2,482,331 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its position in Williams Companies by 69.2% during the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 4,105,754 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $143,003,000 after acquiring an additional 1,679,452 shares during the period. First Financial Bankshares Inc bought a new stake in Williams Companies during the fourth quarter worth about $56,223,000. Finally, Morningstar Investment Services LLC grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 3,821.2% in the fourth quarter. Morningstar Investment Services LLC now owns 1,579,718 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $55,180,000 after purchasing an additional 1,539,431 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. US Capital Advisors cut Williams Companies from an “overweight” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $38.00 to $46.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 4th. StockNews.com lowered Williams Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Argus upgraded Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 20th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their target price on Williams Companies from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Williams Companies currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $41.42.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of Williams Companies stock traded up $0.50 during trading on Thursday, reaching $42.80. 3,176,619 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,724,086. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52-week low of $32.20 and a 52-week high of $43.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62, a current ratio of 0.52 and a quick ratio of 0.48. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $40.82 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $37.74. The company has a market capitalization of $52.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.98, a P/E/G ratio of 6.63 and a beta of 1.05.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $2.77 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.69 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.27% and a net margin of 27.29%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.56 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.85 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 7th were paid a $0.475 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 7th. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.44%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is currently 79.83%.

Insider Activity

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Debbie L. Pickle sold 38,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.61, for a total transaction of $1,513,102.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 60,410 shares in the company, valued at $2,392,840.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate 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.