The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) Shares Purchased by Patten & Patten Inc. TN

Patten & Patten Inc. TN raised its position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 19.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 12,145 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,980 shares during the quarter. Patten & Patten Inc. TN’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $473,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of WMB. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 9.3% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 90,422 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $3,152,000 after acquiring an additional 7,692 shares in the last quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 646.0% during the 4th quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 2,029 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $71,000 after acquiring an additional 1,757 shares during the last quarter. BKM Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Williams Companies during the fourth quarter valued at $86,000. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC acquired a new position in shares of Williams Companies in the fourth quarter worth about $348,000. Finally, Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Williams Companies in the fourth quarter worth approximately $206,000. 86.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on WMB. Barclays lifted their price target on Williams Companies from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $43.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. US Capital Advisors downgraded shares of Williams Companies from an “overweight” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 29th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Williams Companies from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, June 13th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $41.77.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE WMB traded up $0.77 during trading on Monday, reaching $44.77. 8,500,027 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,537,039. The stock has a market capitalization of $54.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.88 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62, a current ratio of 0.52 and a quick ratio of 0.48. The company has a 50-day moving average of $41.72 and a 200-day moving average of $38.40. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52-week low of $32.49 and a 52-week high of $45.10.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.10. Williams Companies had a net margin of 27.29% and a return on equity of 16.27%. The business had revenue of $2.77 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.69 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.56 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 24th. Investors of record on Friday, June 7th were given a dividend of $0.475 per share. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 7th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 79.83%.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In other news, SVP Debbie L. Pickle sold 38,200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.61, for a total value of $1,513,102.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 60,410 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,392,840.10. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.44% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.