Raymond James & Associates Purchases 55,248 Shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Raymond James & Associates lifted its position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 0.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 8,421,205 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after acquiring an additional 55,248 shares during the quarter. Raymond James & Associates owned 0.69% of Williams Companies worth $328,174,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WMB. Rheos Capital Works Inc. lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 59.0% in the 4th quarter. Rheos Capital Works Inc. now owns 660,000 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $22,988,000 after purchasing an additional 245,000 shares during the period. Autumn Glory Partners LLC boosted its position in Williams Companies by 28.1% during the 3rd quarter. Autumn Glory Partners LLC now owns 107,609 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $3,625,000 after acquiring an additional 23,579 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in Williams Companies by 35.1% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,553,779 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $321,867,000 after acquiring an additional 2,482,331 shares in the last quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. raised its position in shares of Williams Companies by 45.3% in the 3rd quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 6,545,151 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $220,506,000 after acquiring an additional 2,040,993 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Williams Companies by 3,338.2% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 352,104 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $12,264,000 after acquiring an additional 341,863 shares in the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WMB has been the topic of several analyst reports. Truist Financial lifted their target price on Williams Companies from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 25th. Wolfe Research reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and issued a $34.00 price objective on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $43.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Williams Companies has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $39.22.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE WMB traded down $0.19 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $39.26. The stock had a trading volume of 5,723,399 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,256,537. The company has a 50 day moving average of $37.45 and a two-hundred day moving average of $35.88. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $28.27 and a twelve month high of $39.76. 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 firm has a market cap of $47.84 billion, a PE ratio of 14.98, a PEG ratio of 6.17 and a beta of 1.05.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The pipeline company reported $0.48 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 in the prior year, the business earned $0.53 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.475 dividend. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.84%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is currently 72.52%.

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.