Mather Group LLC. Lowers Stock Holdings in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Mather Group LLC. lowered its position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 4.8% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 12,552 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 634 shares during the quarter. Mather Group LLC.’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $489,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Emprise Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Williams Companies during the first quarter worth about $251,000. Walnut Private Equity Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Williams Companies by 2.7% during the first quarter. Walnut Private Equity Partners LLC now owns 493,945 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $19,249,000 after buying an additional 13,000 shares during the last quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 3.5% in the first quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC now owns 1,644,620 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $64,091,000 after buying an additional 56,013 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 19.4% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 12,936 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $504,000 after acquiring an additional 2,100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Symmetry Partners LLC grew its stake in Williams Companies by 4.9% during the first quarter. Symmetry Partners LLC now owns 12,800 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $499,000 after acquiring an additional 600 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of WMB opened at $42.43 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $40.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $37.27. The company has a market cap of $51.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.83, a P/E/G ratio of 6.56 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a current ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $30.26 and a twelve month high of $42.60.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $2.77 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.69 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 27.29% and a return on equity of 16.27%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.56 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.85 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 24th. Investors of record on Friday, June 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.475 per share. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.48%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 7th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is currently 79.83%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on WMB shares. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 10th. Wolfe Research reaffirmed 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 increased their target price on Williams Companies from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. Finally, CIBC upped their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $41.42.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Debbie L. Pickle sold 38,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 60,410 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,392,840.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.44% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.