J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. Has $629,000 Stock Position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 13.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,629 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,392 shares during the quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $629,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in 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 last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in 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 last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in 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 last quarter. Swiss National Bank grew its holdings in 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 last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC grew its holdings in 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 last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Shares of WMB stock opened at $58.25 on Thursday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $71.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.07 and a beta of 1.04. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $56.02 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $52.03. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $33.85 and a 52 week high of $61.46.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The pipeline company reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.47. Williams Companies had a net margin of 21.17% and a return on equity of 15.85%. On average, analysts expect that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This is an increase from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 103.83%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on WMB shares. Scotiabank reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $51.00 price objective on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Friday, January 10th. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $55.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. One 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. According to MarketBeat, Williams Companies currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $53.29.

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.