The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) Shares Acquired by Pullen Investment Management LLC

Pullen Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 2.5% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 23,022 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after acquiring an additional 562 shares during the period. Pullen Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $1,376,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Williams Companies by 0.8% during 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 lifted its stake in Williams Companies by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 31,263,235 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,687,797,000 after acquiring an additional 540,533 shares in the last quarter. Blackstone Inc. lifted its stake in Williams Companies by 36.5% during the 4th quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 18,954,088 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,025,795,000 after acquiring an additional 5,068,738 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in Williams Companies by 12.5% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 15,236,940 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $824,623,000 after acquiring an additional 1,696,618 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Williams Companies during the 4th quarter worth about $575,103,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on WMB shares. Wolfe Research raised Williams Companies from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $63.00 price target on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Friday, May 16th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Williams Companies from $58.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Williams Companies from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, CIBC upped their price target on Williams Companies from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $61.25.

Williams Companies Trading Down 0.6%

WMB opened at $59.74 on Friday. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a one year low of $40.41 and a one year high of $61.67. The company has a market cap of $72.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.65, a PEG ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.50. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $58.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $57.37.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $3.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.90 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.59 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.35%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is currently 106.95%.

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.