Sandy Spring Bank Takes $27,000 Position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Sandy Spring Bank bought a new stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 507 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Quest Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Williams Companies during the 3rd quarter valued at about $116,000. Prospera Financial Services Inc grew its position in shares of Williams Companies by 7.2% during the 3rd quarter. Prospera Financial Services Inc now owns 13,714 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $626,000 after buying an additional 917 shares during the last quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC bought a new stake in shares of Williams Companies during the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,516,000. Commerce Bank grew its position in shares of Williams Companies by 5.0% during the 3rd quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 69,511 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $3,173,000 after buying an additional 3,280 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI grew its position in shares of Williams Companies by 35.0% during the 3rd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 17,542 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $801,000 after buying an additional 4,548 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In related news, SVP Larry C. Larsen sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.94, for a total value of $455,520.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 81,265 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,627,229.10. This represents a 8.96 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Micheal G. Dunn sold 96,687 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.04, for a total transaction of $5,128,278.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 714,693 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $37,907,316.72. This represents a 11.92 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 139,583 shares of company stock valued at $7,563,278 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Trading Down 0.3 %

Williams Companies stock opened at $59.60 on Friday. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12-month low of $37.18 and a 12-month high of $61.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $72.67 billion, a PE ratio of 32.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 1.03. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $57.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $53.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 0.50 and a quick ratio of 0.45.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The pipeline company reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.47. Williams Companies had a net margin of 21.17% and a return on equity of 15.85%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.36%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is currently 109.29%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on WMB shares. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Citigroup upped their target price 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. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $55.21.

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.