The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) Shares Sold by Sterneck Capital Management LLC

Sterneck Capital Management LLC cut its stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 10.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 16,652 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 1,958 shares during the period. Sterneck Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $901,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 19.0% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 1.7% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,648,918 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $410,064,000 after purchasing an additional 311,530 shares in the last quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 8.8% in the 2nd quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 7,664,152 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $325,726,000 after purchasing an additional 618,056 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Williams Companies by 0.9% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,239,210 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $330,470,000 after purchasing an additional 67,016 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 7,951 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 25,858 shares in the company, valued at $1,455,805.40. This trade represents a 23.52 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.44% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on WMB. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. UBS Group boosted their price target 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. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $55.00 price objective for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $52.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Friday, October 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Williams Companies presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $52.07.

Williams Companies Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of Williams Companies stock opened at $55.55 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 0.57 and a quick ratio of 0.51. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $55.53 and its 200-day simple moving average is $48.98. The stock has a market cap of $67.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.44, a P/E/G 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.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by $0.01. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 15.89% and a net margin of 27.36%. The company had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.52 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.45 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th were given a dividend of $0.475 per share. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.42%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is currently 80.17%.

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.