Sterneck Capital Management LLC Has $850,000 Stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Sterneck Capital Management LLC reduced its stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 18,610 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 1,407 shares during the period. Sterneck Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $850,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Blackstone Inc. increased its stake 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 worth $252,006,000 after purchasing an additional 3,373,800 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 21.3% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,593,482 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $403,801,000 after buying an additional 2,039,703 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 40.1% during the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 5,753,223 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $224,203,000 after buying an additional 1,647,469 shares during the last quarter. First Financial Bankshares Inc acquired a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the fourth quarter worth approximately $56,223,000. Finally, Morningstar Investment Services LLC boosted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 3,821.2% in the fourth quarter. Morningstar Investment Services LLC now owns 1,579,718 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $55,180,000 after acquiring an additional 1,539,431 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Williams Companies

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 304,200 shares in the company, valued at $13,777,218. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. StockNews.com cut shares of Williams Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Scotiabank boosted their price target on Williams Companies from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $44.46.

Williams Companies Stock Up 1.2 %

WMB opened at $48.21 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $58.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.26, a PEG ratio of 6.54 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a current ratio of 0.45. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $44.61 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.91. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $32.58 and a twelve month high of $48.33.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $2.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 27.11% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.42 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate 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. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th were issued a dividend of $0.475 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.94%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is 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.