Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund Invests $7 Million in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund purchased a new position in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 164,800 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,004,000.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of WMB. Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 5.9% during the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 20,983,727 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $817,736,000 after purchasing an additional 1,175,628 shares during the period. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 1.2% during the second quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. now owns 12,670,175 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $538,482,000 after purchasing an additional 144,713 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of 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 worth $403,801,000 after purchasing an additional 2,039,703 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 3.3% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,648,918 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $410,064,000 after purchasing an additional 311,530 shares during the period. Finally, Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 13.4% during the first quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP now owns 8,540,611 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $332,828,000 after purchasing an additional 1,010,658 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.29, for a total transaction of $90,580.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 304,200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,777,218. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.44% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Williams Companies Trading Up 2.9 %

Shares of WMB stock opened at $49.63 on Friday. 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 company has a market cap of $60.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.85, a PEG ratio of 6.54 and a beta of 1.05. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $44.75 and a 200-day simple moving average of $42.00. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1-year low of $32.63 and a 1-year high of $49.67.

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

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th were paid a $0.475 dividend. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 79.83%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WMB has been the subject of a number of research reports. UBS Group lifted their target price on Williams Companies from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Truist Financial lifted their target price on Williams Companies from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. StockNews.com downgraded Williams Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Argus raised Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 20th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $45.23.

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.