D.B. Root & Company LLC Decreases Holdings in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

D.B. Root & Company LLC reduced its holdings in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 1.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 39,585 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 525 shares during the period. D.B. Root & Company LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $1,543,000 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. Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of Williams Companies by 3.9% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 19,086,234 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $643,015,000 after acquiring an additional 712,048 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 21.3% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,593,482 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $403,801,000 after buying an additional 2,039,703 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Williams Companies during the 4th quarter worth approximately $306,417,000. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. raised its position in Williams Companies by 7.2% in the 4th quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 7,018,863 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $244,467,000 after purchasing an additional 473,712 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Williams Companies by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,879,547 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $239,615,000 after purchasing an additional 166,090 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on WMB. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Williams Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $43.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. CIBC increased their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $41.42.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Shares of WMB traded up $0.26 on Friday, reaching $42.50. 8,506,931 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,084,668. The firm has a market cap of $51.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.86, a P/E/G ratio of 6.67 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 Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12 month low of $31.98 and a 12 month high of $43.22. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $40.60 and its 200-day moving average price is $37.57.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.10. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.27% and a net margin of 27.29%. The company had revenue of $2.77 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.69 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.56 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 24th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 4.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 7th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is currently 79.83%.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Debbie L. Pickle sold 38,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 60,410 shares in the company, valued at $2,392,840.10. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.44% of the stock is owned by 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.