New York State Common Retirement Fund Has $33.74 Million Stock Position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

New York State Common Retirement Fund lowered its stake in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 2.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 623,463 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 15,306 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned approximately 0.05% of Williams Companies worth $33,742,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in WMB. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 19.0% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 35,734,666 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,631,288,000 after purchasing an additional 5,697,605 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 3,490.2% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,600,239 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $86,605,000 after purchasing an additional 1,555,667 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI raised its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 224.1% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,334,307 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $60,909,000 after purchasing an additional 922,550 shares during the period. Castle Hook Partners LP raised its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 31.7% during the third quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP now owns 2,989,278 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $136,461,000 after purchasing an additional 718,915 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 1.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 30,722,702 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,398,004,000 after purchasing an additional 520,663 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Scotiabank restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $51.00 target price on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Friday, January 10th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $55.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $46.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $53.29.

Williams Companies Stock Up 0.3 %

Williams Companies stock opened at $58.46 on Friday. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $34.13 and a twelve month high of $61.46. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $56.09 and a 200-day moving average price of $52.07. The company has a market capitalization of $71.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.95, a P/E/G ratio of 5.10 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a quick ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The pipeline company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47. Williams Companies had a net margin of 21.17% and a return on equity of 15.85%. As a group, equities analysts predict that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This is an increase from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is currently 103.83%.

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.