The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) Stake Raised by Exencial Wealth Advisors LLC

Exencial Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 0.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 67,055 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 457 shares during the period. Exencial Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $3,629,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of WMB. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its position in Williams Companies by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 19,896 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $908,000 after purchasing an additional 1,263 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in Williams Companies by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 404,071 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $18,446,000 after purchasing an additional 21,267 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its position in Williams Companies by 37.5% in the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 493,347 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $22,521,000 after purchasing an additional 134,603 shares during the last quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Williams Companies by 7.9% in the 3rd quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 104,600 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $4,775,000 after purchasing an additional 7,700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service increased its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 17.1% during the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 2,379,577 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $108,628,000 after acquiring an additional 348,139 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of WMB stock opened at $56.90 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $56.65 and its 200 day simple moving average is $52.98. 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 firm has a market cap of $69.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.09, a P/E/G ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 1.04. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a one year low of $35.74 and a one year high of $61.46.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The pipeline company reported $0.47 EPS 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%. On average, 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $0.50 dividend. This is an increase from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.51%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is presently 109.29%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Williams Companies

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Chad A. Teply sold 26,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.46, for a total value of $1,467,960.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 133,048 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,511,890.08. The trade was a 16.35 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WMB has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $55.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. CIBC raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $46.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. One 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $54.93.

Williams Companies Company 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.