Park Place Capital Corp Cuts Holdings in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Park Place Capital Corp trimmed its holdings in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 49.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,073 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 7,853 shares during the quarter. Park Place Capital Corp’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $369,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 5.9% in the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 20,983,727 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $817,736,000 after purchasing an additional 1,175,628 shares during the last quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 1.2% in the second quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. now owns 12,670,175 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $538,482,000 after purchasing an additional 144,713 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in 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 worth $403,801,000 after purchasing an additional 2,039,703 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 3.3% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,648,918 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $410,064,000 after purchasing an additional 311,530 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 13.4% in the first quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP now owns 8,540,611 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $332,828,000 after purchasing an additional 1,010,658 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WMB has been the topic of several analyst reports. Scotiabank lifted their price target 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. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note 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 note on Tuesday, July 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Williams Companies currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $46.08.

Williams Companies Trading Down 1.5 %

NYSE WMB opened at $48.94 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $59.65 billion, a PE ratio of 20.56, a P/E/G ratio of 6.79 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a fifty day moving average of $44.88 and a 200 day moving average of $42.14. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $32.65 and a 1 year high of $49.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64, a current ratio of 0.45 and a quick ratio of 0.39.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.05. Williams Companies had a net margin of 27.11% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The company had revenue of $2.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.42 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th were issued a $0.475 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.88%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is 79.83%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Williams Companies

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.29, for a total value of $90,580.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 304,200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,777,218. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.44% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.