Independence Bank of Kentucky Has $680,000 Stock Position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Independence Bank of Kentucky raised its stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 50.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 17,452 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 5,860 shares during the period. Independence Bank of Kentucky’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $680,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in Williams Companies by 3.9% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 19,086,234 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $643,015,000 after buying an additional 712,048 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 21.3% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,593,482 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $403,801,000 after acquiring an additional 2,039,703 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the fourth quarter valued at $306,417,000. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 7.2% during the fourth quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 7,018,863 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $244,467,000 after acquiring an additional 473,712 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of 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 valued at $239,615,000 after acquiring an additional 166,090 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WMB has been the subject of several analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $43.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 13th. Wolfe Research reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and set a $34.00 price target on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, CIBC raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Williams Companies presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $41.42.

Insider Buying and Selling at Williams Companies

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Debbie L. Pickle sold 38,200 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.61, for a total value of $1,513,102.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 60,410 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,392,840.10. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Trading Up 0.6 %

WMB opened at $42.50 on Friday. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1-year low of $31.98 and a 1-year high of $43.22. The company has a current ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62. The company has a market cap of $51.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.67 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $40.60 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $37.57.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.10. Williams Companies had a net margin of 27.29% and a return on equity of 16.27%. The firm had revenue of $2.77 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.69 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.56 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 7th were paid a $0.475 dividend. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 7th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.