Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd Makes New Investment in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd bought a new position in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 47,148 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,552,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WMB. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Williams Companies by 19.0% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 35,734,666 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,631,288,000 after buying an additional 5,697,605 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 3,490.2% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,600,239 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $86,605,000 after purchasing an additional 1,555,667 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI raised its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 224.1% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,334,307 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $60,909,000 after purchasing an additional 922,550 shares in the last quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP raised its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 31.7% in the 3rd quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP now owns 2,989,278 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $136,461,000 after purchasing an additional 718,915 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 30,722,702 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,398,004,000 after purchasing an additional 520,663 shares in the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WMB has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Scotiabank restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $51.00 price objective on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $46.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $53.29.

Williams Companies Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of Williams Companies stock opened at $57.28 on Tuesday. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $34.54 and a 1 year high of $61.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.50. The company has a market capitalization of $69.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.30, a PEG ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 1.05. The company’s fifty day moving average is $56.21 and its two-hundred day moving average is $52.41.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The pipeline company reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.47. Williams Companies had a net margin of 21.17% and a return on equity of 15.85%. Analysts forecast that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders 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. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.49%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is presently 109.29%.

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.