Ritholtz Wealth Management Acquires 506 Shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Ritholtz Wealth Management grew its holdings in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 9,203 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 506 shares during the quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $420,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of WMB. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 1,175,628 shares in the last quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 1.2% during the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,648,918 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $410,064,000 after buying an additional 311,530 shares during the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 13.4% in the first quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP now owns 8,540,611 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $332,828,000 after buying an additional 1,010,658 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bahl & Gaynor Inc. increased its holdings in Williams Companies by 8.8% during the second quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 7,664,152 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $325,726,000 after buying an additional 618,056 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.29, for a total value of $90,580.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 304,200 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,777,218. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Trading Up 0.9 %

WMB stock opened at $51.36 on Thursday. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $32.65 and a 52 week high of $51.63. The company has a market capitalization of $62.60 billion, a PE ratio of 22.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.10 and a beta of 1.05. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $45.95 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a current ratio of 0.45.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its earnings results on Monday, August 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $2.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.42 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th were issued a $0.475 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.70%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is presently 81.55%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WMB has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Argus raised shares of Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 20th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Seaport Res Ptn cut Williams Companies from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Morgan Stanley raised Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $52.00 to $58.00 in a report on Friday, October 4th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on Williams Companies from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $46.83.

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.