Lake Street Private Wealth LLC Cuts Stock Position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Lake Street Private Wealth LLC reduced its stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 3.5% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 10,008 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 367 shares during the period. Lake Street Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $457,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Blackstone Inc. increased its position in shares of Williams Companies by 109.1% during the first quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 6,466,660 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $252,006,000 after acquiring an additional 3,373,800 shares in 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 valued at $224,203,000 after purchasing an additional 1,647,469 shares in the last quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP purchased a new stake in shares of Williams Companies during the first quarter valued at $57,220,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its holdings in Williams Companies by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 20,983,727 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $817,736,000 after buying an additional 1,175,628 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in Williams Companies by 20.1% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 6,117,298 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $259,985,000 after buying an additional 1,024,158 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on WMB. Seaport Res Ptn lowered shares of Williams Companies from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. StockNews.com downgraded Williams Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on Williams Companies in a report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $55.00 target price on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $48.62.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WMB opened at $52.24 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $63.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.42, a P/E/G ratio of 5.87 and a beta of 1.05. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $46.83 and a 200 day moving average price of $43.14. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $32.65 and a fifty-two week high of $52.82. 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 quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.05. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 27.11%. The company had revenue of $2.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.42 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 27th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th were given a $0.475 dividend. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.64%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is presently 81.55%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Williams Companies

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.29, for a total value of $90,580.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 304,200 shares in the company, valued at $13,777,218. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.44% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.