Cadent Capital Advisors LLC Raises Stock Position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Cadent Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMBFree Report) by 3.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 44,026 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 1,264 shares during the quarter. Cadent Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $2,383,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 11.5% during the 2nd quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 140,081 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $5,953,000 after purchasing an additional 14,480 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its holdings in Williams Companies by 20.3% during the second quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 264,710 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $11,164,000 after buying an additional 44,758 shares during the last quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Williams Companies in the second quarter worth approximately $34,000. Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the 2nd quarter worth $786,000. Finally, J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Williams Companies by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 9,298 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $395,000 after acquiring an additional 257 shares during the period. 86.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Williams Companies

In related news, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 7,951 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.30, for a total transaction of $447,641.30. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 25,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,455,805.40. This represents a 23.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on WMB. Mizuho raised their target price on Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Morgan Stanley raised Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $52.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $55.00 target price for the company. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $55.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Scotiabank reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $51.00 price target on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Williams Companies presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $53.00.

Read Our Latest Research Report on Williams Companies

Williams Companies Trading Up 0.4 %

WMB stock traded up $0.24 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $55.76. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,267,052 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,714,618. The firm has a market capitalization of $67.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.53, a PEG ratio of 5.60 and a beta of 1.06. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $32.65 and a 1 year high of $60.36. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $55.77 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $49.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a current ratio of 0.57.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMBGet Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by $0.01. Williams Companies had a net margin of 27.36% and a return on equity of 15.89%. The company had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.52 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.45 earnings per share. Williams Companies’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.92 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Investors 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.41%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 80.17%.

Williams Companies Profile

(Free Report)

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.

Further Reading

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Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB)

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