Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Has $15.54 Million Stock Position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky lessened its holdings in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 6.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 287,040 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 18,570 shares during the quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $15,535,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of WMB. Quent Capital LLC acquired a new position in Williams Companies during the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Bank of Jackson Hole Trust acquired a new stake in Williams Companies in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. AlphaMark Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Sandy Spring Bank bought a new position in shares of Williams Companies in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Finally, Hoey Investments Inc. bought a new stake in Williams Companies during the 4th quarter worth $28,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In other news, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 8,896 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.50, for a total transaction of $511,520.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 22,339 shares in the company, valued at $1,284,492.50. The trade was a 28.48 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, COO Micheal G. Dunn sold 96,687 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.04, for a total value of $5,128,278.48. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 714,693 shares in the company, valued at $37,907,316.72. This trade represents a 11.92 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 139,583 shares of company stock valued at $7,563,278. Corporate insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on WMB. Citigroup lifted their price target on Williams Companies from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. CIBC boosted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Barclays raised their target price on Williams Companies from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price target on Williams Companies from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $57.77.

Williams Companies Stock Down 3.7 %

WMB stock opened at $56.47 on Tuesday. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $37.69 and a fifty-two week high of $61.67. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $57.47 and a 200-day moving average of $55.96. The company has a market capitalization of $68.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.86, a PEG ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.50.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The pipeline company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.47. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 15.85% and a net margin of 21.17%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a $0.50 dividend. This is a positive change from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 109.29%.

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.