First Hawaiian Bank Decreases Stock Position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

First Hawaiian Bank cut its holdings in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 14.1% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 76,319 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 12,575 shares during the quarter. First Hawaiian Bank’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $2,974,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Morgan Stanley raised its stake in Williams Companies by 3.9% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 19,086,234 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $643,015,000 after buying an additional 712,048 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Williams Companies by 8.1% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 14,455,063 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $486,991,000 after buying an additional 1,089,150 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its stake in Williams Companies by 7.3% in the third quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 13,628,627 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $459,148,000 after buying an additional 921,537 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in Williams Companies by 21.3% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,593,482 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $403,801,000 after buying an additional 2,039,703 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Williams Companies in the fourth quarter valued at about $306,417,000. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Williams Companies Stock Up 1.3 %

Williams Companies stock opened at $41.81 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $50.96 billion, a PE ratio of 17.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.56 and a beta of 1.05. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12 month low of $30.24 and a 12 month high of $41.94. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $39.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $37.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62, a current ratio of 0.52 and a quick ratio of 0.48.

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

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be given a $0.475 dividend. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.54%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 7th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 79.83%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WMB has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 13th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $43.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Wolfe Research restated an “underperform” rating and issued a $34.00 price objective on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, CIBC raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $41.42.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Debbie L. Pickle sold 38,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.61, for a total value of $1,513,102.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Company 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.