Contravisory Investment Management Inc. Buys Shares of 8,962 The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Contravisory Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 8,962 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $485,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in WMB. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new stake in Williams Companies during the 4th quarter valued at $720,000. Brendel Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Williams Companies by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Brendel Financial Advisors LLC now owns 51,927 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,370,000 after purchasing an additional 419 shares during the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Williams Companies in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $545,000. Swiss National Bank grew its position in Williams Companies by 0.3% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 3,617,300 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $165,130,000 after buying an additional 9,800 shares during the period. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. raised its position in Williams Companies by 1,855.7% in the third quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 42,029 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,918,000 after acquiring an additional 39,880 shares during the period. 86.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Williams Companies

In other news, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 7,951 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $1,455,805.40. This represents a 23.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. CIBC boosted their price target on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $52.00 to $58.00 in a report on Friday, October 4th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. 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. Finally, Bank of America assumed coverage on Williams Companies in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $55.00 price objective for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $53.00.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Shares of Williams Companies stock opened at $57.95 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $70.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.45, a PEG ratio of 5.36 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a quick ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $55.95 and a 200 day moving average price of $49.46. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $32.65 and a 52 week high of $60.36.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.52 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 27.36% and a return on equity of 15.89%. The business’s revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.45 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.92 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th were issued a $0.475 dividend. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is 80.17%.

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.