Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund Makes New Investment in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund bought a new position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 164,800 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,004,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Williams Companies by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 20,983,727 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $817,736,000 after purchasing an additional 1,175,628 shares during the last quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. grew 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 valued at $538,482,000 after acquiring an additional 144,713 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 21.3% during the 4th 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 period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 3.3% during 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 acquiring an additional 311,530 shares during the period. Finally, Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 13.4% during the 1st quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP now owns 8,540,611 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $332,828,000 after acquiring an additional 1,010,658 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other 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 transaction 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 filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Stock Up 2.9 %

NYSE:WMB opened at $49.63 on Friday. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $32.63 and a twelve month high of $49.67. The company has a market cap of $60.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.54 and a beta of 1.05. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $44.75 and a 200-day simple moving average of $42.00. The company has a current ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its earnings results on Monday, August 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $2.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 27.11%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.42 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th were paid a dividend of $0.475 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.83%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is currently 79.83%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on WMB. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded Williams Companies from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Citigroup upped their price target on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. StockNews.com downgraded Williams Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $52.00 to $58.00 in a research note on Friday. Finally, Argus upgraded Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $45.23.

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.