The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) Shares Sold by OneAscent Financial Services LLC

OneAscent Financial Services LLC lowered its stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 4.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 10,586 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 489 shares during the quarter. OneAscent Financial Services LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $573,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Williams Companies in the 4th quarter worth approximately $575,103,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Williams Companies by 19.0% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 35,734,666 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,631,288,000 after purchasing an additional 5,697,605 shares in the last quarter. Amundi boosted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 28.8% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 8,781,963 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $495,215,000 after buying an additional 1,964,421 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 3,490.2% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,600,239 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $86,605,000 after buying an additional 1,555,667 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 147.1% in the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 1,906,740 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $103,193,000 after buying an additional 1,135,195 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Williams Companies

In related news, SVP Chad A. Teply sold 26,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.46, for a total transaction of $1,467,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 133,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,511,890.08. This trade represents a 16.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 8,896 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.50, for a total transaction of $511,520.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 22,339 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,284,492.50. The trade was a 28.48 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 139,583 shares of company stock worth $7,563,278. 0.44% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on WMB shares. CIBC raised their target price on Williams Companies from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on Williams Companies from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $56.07.

Williams Companies Trading Up 1.8 %

NYSE WMB opened at $61.64 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $57.36 and its 200 day moving average price is $54.86. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12 month low of $37.18 and a 12 month high of $61.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 0.50 and a quick ratio of 0.45. The company has a market capitalization of $75.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 1.03.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The pipeline company reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.47. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 15.85% and a net margin of 21.17%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.24%. This is a boost from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is presently 109.29%.

Williams Companies 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.