United Asset Strategies Inc. Sells 732 Shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

United Asset Strategies Inc. reduced its stake in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 0.9% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 76,433 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 732 shares during the quarter. United Asset Strategies Inc.’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $3,489,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of WMB. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 5.9% during the first 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 period. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. increased its position in shares of 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 valued at $538,482,000 after acquiring an additional 144,713 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of 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 valued at $410,064,000 after acquiring an additional 311,530 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 13.4% during the first 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 last quarter. Finally, Bahl & Gaynor Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 8.8% during the second quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 7,664,152 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $325,726,000 after purchasing an additional 618,056 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on WMB. UBS Group upped their price target on Williams Companies from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. CIBC upped their target price on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $48.62.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 304,200 shares in the company, valued at $13,777,218. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Williams Companies Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of WMB stock traded down $0.23 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $52.26. 963,087 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,224,470. The company has a quick ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $47.62 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $43.61. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12-month low of $32.65 and a 12-month high of $52.85. The stock has a market cap of $63.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.54, a PEG ratio of 5.88 and a beta of 1.05.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.05. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 27.11%. The business 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 business earned $0.42 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

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.