Castle Hook Partners LP Buys 718,915 Shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Castle Hook Partners LP raised its position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 31.7% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 2,989,278 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 718,915 shares during the period. Williams Companies makes up 2.6% of Castle Hook Partners LP’s portfolio, making the stock its 12th biggest holding. Castle Hook Partners LP’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $136,461,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in Williams Companies by 20.1% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 6,117,298 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $259,985,000 after buying an additional 1,024,158 shares during the period. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. boosted its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 618,056 shares in the last quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Williams Companies by 26.8% in the third quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC now owns 2,097,941 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $95,771,000 after purchasing an additional 443,423 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 102.2% during the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 865,538 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $39,512,000 after purchasing an additional 437,486 shares during the period. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 180.6% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 638,120 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $24,868,000 after purchasing an additional 410,705 shares during the period. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.29, for a total transaction 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 0.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 7,951 shares of the business’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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,455,805.40. The trade was a 23.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on WMB. Barclays boosted their target price on Williams Companies from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Williams Companies from $55.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $55.00 price target for the company. Finally, CIBC raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $51.79.

Williams Companies Trading Down 0.4 %

NYSE:WMB opened at $58.14 on Thursday. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $32.65 and a 52 week high of $60.36. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $52.12 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $46.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a current ratio of 0.57. The firm has a market cap of $70.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.01 and a beta of 1.03.

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

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.475 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.27%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is currently 80.17%.

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.