National Pension Service Has $69.61 Million Stock Position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

National Pension Service increased its position in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 1.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,998,635 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after acquiring an additional 37,631 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service owned 0.16% of Williams Companies worth $69,612,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in WMB. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 13.0% during the third quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 15,001 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $505,000 after buying an additional 1,721 shares in the last quarter. Advisor Partners II LLC grew its stake in Williams Companies by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter. Advisor Partners II LLC now owns 78,159 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,633,000 after acquiring an additional 4,557 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 80,117 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,699,000 after purchasing an additional 1,822 shares during the period. Graypoint LLC lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 15.2% in the third quarter. Graypoint LLC now owns 11,956 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $403,000 after purchasing an additional 1,581 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 18.2% during the third quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 591,053 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $19,913,000 after purchasing an additional 90,932 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on WMB. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Wolfe Research reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and issued a $34.00 target price on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. US Capital Advisors lowered Williams Companies from an “overweight” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 29th. Finally, CIBC increased their price objective on Williams Companies from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $39.55.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Shares of Williams Companies stock traded up $0.20 on Thursday, reaching $39.52. The stock had a trading volume of 2,799,745 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,921,433. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.77. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $38.01 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $36.06. The stock has a market cap of $48.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.13 and a beta of 1.05. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $28.27 and a fifty-two week high of $39.99.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its earnings results on Monday, May 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $2.77 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.69 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 27.29% and a return on equity of 16.40%. The business’s revenue was down 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.56 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.82 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be issued a $0.475 dividend. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 7th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 79.83%.

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.