The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) Shares Sold by Ingalls & Snyder LLC

Ingalls & Snyder LLC reduced its position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 8.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,429,566 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 136,457 shares during the quarter. Williams Companies comprises about 3.0% of Ingalls & Snyder LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 7th largest position. Ingalls & Snyder LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $77,368,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 19.0% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 35,734,666 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,631,288,000 after purchasing an additional 5,697,605 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 3,490.2% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,600,239 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $86,605,000 after purchasing an additional 1,555,667 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 224.1% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,334,307 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $60,909,000 after purchasing an additional 922,550 shares during the period. Castle Hook Partners LP lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 31.7% during the third quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP now owns 2,989,278 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $136,461,000 after purchasing an additional 718,915 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 1.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 30,722,702 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,398,004,000 after purchasing an additional 520,663 shares during the period. 86.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WMB has been the subject of several recent research reports. Bank of America initiated coverage on Williams Companies in a report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $55.00 price target for the company. UBS Group increased their price target on Williams Companies from $55.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Truist Financial increased their price objective on Williams Companies from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Mizuho increased their price objective on Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $53.00.

Williams Companies Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of WMB stock opened at $54.83 on Thursday. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $32.65 and a fifty-two week high of $61.46. The stock has a market cap of $66.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.14, a P/E/G ratio of 5.06 and a beta of 1.04. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $55.87 and a 200-day simple moving average of $51.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The pipeline company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 15.89% and a net margin of 27.36%. On average, analysts forecast that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.91 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. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 80.17%.

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.