The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) Shares Sold by Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC

Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC cut its stake in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 24.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 19,475 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 6,352 shares during the quarter. Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $828,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of WMB. Blackstone Inc. lifted its holdings 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 worth $252,006,000 after purchasing an additional 3,373,800 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Williams Companies by 21.3% in 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 buying an additional 2,039,703 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in shares of Williams Companies by 40.1% in the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 5,753,223 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $224,203,000 after buying an additional 1,647,469 shares in the last quarter. First Financial Bankshares Inc purchased a new position in shares of Williams Companies in the fourth quarter valued at $56,223,000. Finally, Morningstar Investment Services LLC increased 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 buying an additional 1,539,431 shares in the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WMB has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Argus upgraded Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 20th. 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 increased their price objective 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. Wells Fargo & Company raised Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $38.00 to $46.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 4th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their price objective on Williams Companies from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $43.50.

Williams Companies Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE:WMB opened at $45.38 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $44.06 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $41.38. 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 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 price-to-earnings ratio of 19.07, a PEG ratio of 6.24 and a beta of 1.05.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 27.11%. The company’s revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.42 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.475 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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%.

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.