V Square Quantitative Management LLC Grows Position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

V Square Quantitative Management LLC lifted its stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 33.2% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 21,786 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 5,433 shares during the quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $759,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of WMB. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Williams Companies in the fourth quarter worth $306,417,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 35.1% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,553,779 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $321,867,000 after buying an additional 2,482,331 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 55.1% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,900,745 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $165,106,000 after buying an additional 1,740,677 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 69.2% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 4,105,754 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $143,003,000 after buying an additional 1,679,452 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Financial Bankshares Inc purchased a new position in shares of Williams Companies in the fourth quarter worth $56,223,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Trading Down 0.8 %

WMB stock opened at $41.18 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $30.22 and a twelve month high of $41.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $50.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.51 and a beta of 1.05. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $39.82 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $37.13.

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

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be issued a $0.475 dividend. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.61%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 7th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is presently 79.83%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on WMB shares. US Capital Advisors downgraded shares of Williams Companies from an “overweight” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 29th. StockNews.com raised shares of Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Wolfe Research reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and set a $34.00 price target on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $41.25.

Insider Transactions at Williams Companies

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