Brown Miller Wealth Management LLC Cuts Holdings in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Brown Miller Wealth Management LLC reduced its stake in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 5.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,997 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 397 shares during the period. Brown Miller Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $244,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 96,588.4% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 63,423,739 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,086,641,000 after acquiring an additional 63,358,143 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in Williams Companies by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 19,750,630 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $649,796,000 after buying an additional 136,216 shares in the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada increased its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 85.8% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 16,352,215 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $546,327,000 after buying an additional 7,551,749 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Williams Companies by 8.1% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 14,455,063 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $486,991,000 after purchasing an additional 1,089,150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its holdings in Williams Companies by 7.3% in the third quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 13,628,627 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $459,148,000 after purchasing an additional 921,537 shares during the period. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on WMB. Mizuho lifted their price target on Williams Companies from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 7th. UBS Group increased their price target on Williams Companies from $41.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their target price on Williams Companies from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $38.09.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of WMB traded up $0.41 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $38.95. The stock had a trading volume of 6,720,431 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,153,056. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12-month low of $28.27 and a 12-month high of $39.09. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57. The company’s 50-day moving average is $35.50 and its 200 day moving average is $35.15. The company has a market capitalization of $47.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.05 and a beta of 1.04.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The pipeline company reported $0.48 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.01. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.20% and a net margin of 29.22%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.53 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th will be paid a $0.475 dividend. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.88%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is currently 72.52%.

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.