The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) Shares Sold by New York State Teachers Retirement System

New York State Teachers Retirement System lowered its stake in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 5.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,007,550 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 56,211 shares during the period. New York State Teachers Retirement System owned approximately 0.08% of Williams Companies worth $42,821,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in WMB. Signaturefd LLC raised its stake in Williams Companies by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 25,363 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $883,000 after acquiring an additional 774 shares in the last quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd acquired a new position in Williams Companies during the fourth quarter worth approximately $212,000. CWM LLC increased its position in Williams Companies by 18.1% during the fourth quarter. CWM LLC now owns 54,960 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,914,000 after purchasing an additional 8,426 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Trust Company N.A acquired a new stake in Williams Companies in the 4th quarter valued at $85,000. Finally, Sage Mountain Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Williams Companies in the 4th quarter valued at $256,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on WMB. Barclays boosted their price objective on Williams Companies from $41.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday. Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of Williams Companies from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. StockNews.com cut shares of Williams Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $38.00 to $46.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 4th. Finally, CIBC upped their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $42.83.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:WMB traded up $0.50 during trading on Friday, hitting $45.17. 1,516,060 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,488,061. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $42.89 and a 200 day moving average of $39.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64, a current ratio of 0.45 and a quick ratio of 0.39. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52-week low of $32.49 and a 52-week high of $45.25. The company has a market cap of $55.05 billion, a PE ratio of 18.95, a P/E/G ratio of 6.09 and a beta of 1.05.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its earnings results on Monday, August 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $2.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 27.11% and a return on equity of 16.17%. Williams Companies’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.42 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.92 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be issued a $0.475 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.21%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is 79.83%.

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.