Principal Financial Group Inc. Has $71.95 Million Holdings in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 2.3% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,576,165 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 35,981 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $71,952,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of WMB. Blackstone Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 109.1% in the first quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 6,466,660 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $252,006,000 after purchasing an additional 3,373,800 shares in the last quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP bought a new position in shares of Williams Companies in the first quarter valued at approximately $57,220,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 5.9% in the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 20,983,727 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $817,736,000 after purchasing an additional 1,175,628 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 20.1% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 6,117,298 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $259,985,000 after purchasing an additional 1,024,158 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BROOKFIELD Corp ON lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 11.8% in the first quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 5,896,375 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $229,782,000 after purchasing an additional 623,820 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on WMB. Barclays lifted their price target on Williams Companies from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Morgan Stanley upgraded Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $52.00 to $58.00 in a report on Friday, October 4th. CIBC lifted their price target on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. UBS Group lifted their price target on Williams Companies from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $50.38.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Williams Companies stock opened at $56.31 on Friday. 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 business has a 50-day simple moving average of $48.81 and a 200 day simple moving average of $44.34. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $32.65 and a 52 week high of $56.80. The stock has a market cap of $68.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.76, a PEG ratio of 6.19 and a beta of 1.03.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.01. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 15.90% and a net margin of 27.36%. The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.52 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.45 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a $0.475 dividend. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 80.17%.

Insider Activity

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.29, for a total transaction of $90,580.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 304,200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,777,218. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.44% of the stock is currently 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.