Pacer Advisors Inc. Purchases 132,092 Shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 19.1% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 822,992 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after acquiring an additional 132,092 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. owned approximately 0.07% of Williams Companies worth $34,977,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in WMB. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Williams Companies by 15.7% in the 1st quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 108,302 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $4,221,000 after buying an additional 14,672 shares during the last quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 145.5% in the first quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 95,359 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $3,716,000 after buying an additional 56,509 shares during the last quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 24.5% in the fourth quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,636,222 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $91,820,000 after purchasing an additional 518,009 shares during the last quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Williams Companies by 3.5% in the first quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC now owns 1,644,620 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $64,091,000 after purchasing an additional 56,013 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mediolanum International Funds Ltd bought a new position in Williams Companies in the first quarter valued at about $2,364,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on WMB shares. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Barclays boosted their target price on Williams Companies from $41.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 19th. Argus upgraded Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 20th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Williams Companies from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $43.50.

Williams Companies Trading Up 1.1 %

NYSE:WMB opened at $45.38 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $44.06 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.35. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12-month low of $32.49 and a 12-month high of $45.82. The firm has a market cap of $55.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.07, a PEG ratio of 6.24 and a beta of 1.05.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its earnings results 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 business had revenue of $2.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 27.11% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.42 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be given a dividend of $0.475 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.19%. 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.