The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) Shares Sold by Donoghue Forlines LLC

Donoghue Forlines LLC lowered its stake in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 64.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 27,881 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 51,031 shares during the quarter. Donoghue Forlines LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $1,509,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WMB. Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the fourth quarter worth about $720,000. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Williams Companies by 17.0% during the 4th quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 75,278 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $4,074,000 after purchasing an additional 10,950 shares during the period. Brendel Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in Williams Companies by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Brendel Financial Advisors LLC now owns 51,927 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,370,000 after purchasing an additional 419 shares during the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the third quarter valued at approximately $545,000. Finally, Swiss National Bank boosted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 0.3% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 3,617,300 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $165,130,000 after buying an additional 9,800 shares during the period. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on WMB. Citigroup raised their target price on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Barclays raised their price target on Williams Companies from $46.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $55.00 price target on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $53.00.

Williams Companies Trading Up 0.1 %

NYSE:WMB opened at $59.26 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $56.33 and a 200 day simple moving average of $50.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $72.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.44 and a beta of 1.06. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1-year low of $32.65 and a 1-year high of $61.46. The company has a quick ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.52 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 27.36% and a return on equity of 15.89%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.45 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th were issued a $0.475 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.21%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is currently 80.17%.

Insider Transactions at Williams Companies

In other news, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 7,951 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.30, for a total value of $447,641.30. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 25,858 shares in the company, valued at $1,455,805.40. This represents a 23.52 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.