Simon Quick Advisors LLC Cuts Position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Simon Quick Advisors LLC lowered its holdings in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 51.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 6,319 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 6,735 shares during the quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $269,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the 4th quarter worth approximately $306,417,000. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 15.7% in the first quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 108,302 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $4,221,000 after purchasing an additional 14,672 shares during the last quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 145.5% during the 1st quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 95,359 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $3,716,000 after buying an additional 56,509 shares during the last quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Williams Companies by 24.5% in the 4th quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,636,222 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $91,820,000 after acquiring an additional 518,009 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Chickasaw Capital Management LLC raised its position in Williams Companies by 3.5% during the first quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC now owns 1,644,620 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $64,091,000 after acquiring an additional 56,013 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on WMB. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 10th. Seaport Res Ptn cut Williams Companies from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Argus raised Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 20th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Williams Companies currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $42.83.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Shares of WMB stock opened at $44.83 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a current ratio of 0.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $54.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.11 and a beta of 1.05. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a one year low of $32.49 and a one year high of $45.81. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $43.53 and a 200 day moving average price of $40.56.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its earnings results on Monday, August 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.05. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 27.11%. The business had revenue of $2.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.42 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be given a $0.475 dividend. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.24%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is 79.83%.

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.