Precedent Wealth Partners LLC Raises Holdings in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Precedent Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 8.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 9,269 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 729 shares during the period. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $423,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of WMB. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 5.9% during the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 20,983,727 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $817,736,000 after acquiring an additional 1,175,628 shares during the last quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. increased its holdings in Williams Companies by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. now owns 12,670,175 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $538,482,000 after purchasing an additional 144,713 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Williams Companies by 3.3% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,648,918 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $410,064,000 after purchasing an additional 311,530 shares during the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP raised its position in Williams Companies by 13.4% during the 1st quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP now owns 8,540,611 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $332,828,000 after purchasing an additional 1,010,658 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bahl & Gaynor Inc. lifted its holdings in Williams Companies by 8.8% in the 2nd quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 7,664,152 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $325,726,000 after buying an additional 618,056 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group boosted their target price on Williams Companies from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada lifted 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 Wednesday. Finally, Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Thursday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $55.00 price target for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $47.46.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Shares of WMB opened at $52.37 on Friday. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $32.65 and a 52 week high of $52.44. The company has a quick ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64. The stock has a market cap of $63.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.00, a P/E/G ratio of 7.10 and a beta of 1.05. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $46.29 and its 200-day moving average price is $42.84.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its earnings results on Monday, August 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.05. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 27.11%. The business had revenue of $2.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.42 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 27th. Shareholders 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 3.63%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is currently 79.83%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.29, for a total transaction of $90,580.00. Following the sale, 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 SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies 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.