Rhumbline Advisers Cuts Stock Position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Rhumbline Advisers cut its holdings in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 0.5% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,507,992 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 12,358 shares during the quarter. Rhumbline Advisers owned 0.21% of Williams Companies worth $106,590,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of WMB. Fisher Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Williams Companies in the fourth quarter valued at $322,000. Sapient Capital LLC purchased a new position in Williams Companies during the fourth quarter worth $370,000. Gallacher Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Williams Companies during the fourth quarter worth $255,000. Apollon Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Williams Companies by 20.7% during the fourth quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 24,738 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $862,000 after buying an additional 4,250 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Williams Companies by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,879,547 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $239,615,000 after buying an additional 166,090 shares during the period. 86.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WMB has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. CIBC lifted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. Argus raised shares of Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 20th. Morgan Stanley lifted 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. Scotiabank lifted their target price on Williams Companies from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Truist Financial lifted their target price on Williams Companies from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $42.83.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

WMB stock opened at $45.55 on Wednesday. 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 business has a 50-day moving average price of $43.43 and a 200 day moving average price of $40.51. The company has a market capitalization of $55.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.14, a PEG ratio of 6.29 and a beta of 1.05. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1-year low of $32.49 and a 1-year high of $45.81.

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

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th will be issued a $0.475 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.17%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is currently 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.