The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) Shares Acquired by Waterloo Capital L.P.

Waterloo Capital L.P. lifted its stake in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 16.4% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 22,354 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 3,152 shares during the quarter. Waterloo Capital L.P.’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $950,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. O Brien Greene & Co. Inc grew its position in shares of Williams Companies by 11.5% during the second quarter. O Brien Greene & Co. Inc now owns 172,240 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $7,320,000 after buying an additional 17,807 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its holdings in Williams Companies by 23.2% in the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 105,812 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $4,497,000 after purchasing an additional 19,924 shares during the period. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. boosted its holdings in Williams Companies by 0.8% in the second quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 31,206 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,326,000 after purchasing an additional 260 shares during the period. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its holdings in Williams Companies by 5.9% in the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 115,450 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $4,907,000 after purchasing an additional 6,413 shares during the period. Finally, Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co boosted its holdings in Williams Companies by 8.3% in the second quarter. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co now owns 25,120 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,068,000 after purchasing an additional 1,920 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of NYSE WMB opened at $45.18 on Thursday. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $32.49 and a fifty-two week high of $45.82. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $43.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.23. The company has a quick ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64. The stock has a market cap of $55.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.98, a P/E/G ratio of 6.24 and a beta of 1.05.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.42 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th 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 4.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is currently 79.83%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on WMB shares. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $41.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 19th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $38.00 to $46.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $43.50.

Williams Companies Company 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.