Obermeyer Wealth Partners Makes New $208,000 Investment in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Obermeyer Wealth Partners bought a new position in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 3,852 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $208,000.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Williams Companies by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 130,356,165 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $7,054,876,000 after acquiring an additional 1,008,213 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 31,263,235 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,687,797,000 after acquiring an additional 540,533 shares in the last quarter. Blackstone Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 36.5% in the fourth quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 18,954,088 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,025,795,000 after purchasing an additional 5,068,738 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 12.5% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 15,236,940 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $824,623,000 after purchasing an additional 1,696,618 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Williams Companies in the fourth quarter worth approximately $575,103,000. 86.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Micheal G. Dunn sold 96,687 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.04, for a total transaction of $5,128,278.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 714,693 shares in the company, valued at approximately $37,907,316.72. This trade represents a 11.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Larry C. Larsen sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.94, for a total transaction of $455,520.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 81,265 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,627,229.10. This represents a 8.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 139,583 shares of company stock valued at $7,563,278. Insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of WMB opened at $58.09 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $57.99 and a two-hundred day moving average of $56.77. The company has a market cap of $70.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 0.66. The company has a quick ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $39.64 and a twelve month high of $61.67.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.05. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 15.85% and a net margin of 21.17%. The company had revenue of $3.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.90 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.59 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.44%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is 106.95%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on WMB. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Williams Companies from $58.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. Scotiabank raised their price target on Williams Companies from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. CIBC upped their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Williams Companies has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $60.50.

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.