Williamson Legacy Group LLC Purchases New Position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Williamson Legacy Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 4,759 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $258,000.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP grew 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 worth $1,631,288,000 after acquiring an additional 5,697,605 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 30,722,702 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,398,004,000 after acquiring an additional 520,663 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,239,210 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $330,470,000 after acquiring an additional 67,016 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 3,617,300 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $165,130,000 after acquiring an additional 9,800 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 3,271,141 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $149,326,000 after acquiring an additional 108,675 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Citigroup upped their target price on Williams Companies from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Barclays upped their price target on Williams Companies from $46.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Scotiabank restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $51.00 price target on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on Williams Companies from $55.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. 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. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $54.21.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

WMB stock opened at $58.25 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $71.00 billion, a PE ratio of 31.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 1.05. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12-month low of $35.38 and a 12-month high of $61.46. The company has a current ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $56.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $52.66.

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

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.43%. This is a boost from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is presently 109.29%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Chad A. Teply sold 26,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.46, for a total transaction of $1,467,960.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 133,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,511,890.08. This represents a 16.35 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

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.