Richardson Financial Services Inc. Has $251,000 Stock Holdings in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Richardson Financial Services Inc. lowered its stake in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 19.1% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 5,900 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 1,391 shares during the period. Richardson Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $251,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Williams Companies in the 4th quarter worth about $306,417,000. Blackstone Inc. increased its holdings in Williams Companies by 109.1% in the first quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 6,466,660 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $252,006,000 after buying an additional 3,373,800 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Williams Companies by 21.3% during 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 acquiring an additional 2,039,703 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its stake in Williams Companies by 40.1% in the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 5,753,223 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $224,203,000 after acquiring an additional 1,647,469 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Financial Bankshares Inc bought a new stake in Williams Companies in the fourth quarter worth approximately $56,223,000. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. StockNews.com cut Williams Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Wells Fargo & Company raised Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $38.00 to $46.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 4th. Barclays boosted their target price on Williams Companies from $41.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 19th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on Williams Companies from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $43.50.

Williams Companies Price Performance

NYSE:WMB opened at $45.18 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64, a current ratio of 0.45 and a quick ratio of 0.39. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a one year low of $32.49 and a one year high of $45.82. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $43.96 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.23. The stock has a market cap of $55.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.98, a PEG ratio of 6.24 and a beta of 1.05.

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

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.475 per share. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is presently 79.83%.

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.