The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) Shares Sold by D.B. Root & Company LLC

D.B. Root & Company LLC trimmed its holdings in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 19.3% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 18,464 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 4,415 shares during the period. D.B. Root & Company LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $843,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. CVA Family Office LLC lifted its holdings in Williams Companies by 18.7% in the 3rd quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 1,578 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $72,000 after purchasing an additional 249 shares during the last quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton increased its position in Williams Companies by 50.4% in the 3rd quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 752 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 252 shares during the period. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. increased its position in Williams Companies by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 9,298 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $395,000 after buying an additional 257 shares during the period. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. increased its position in Williams Companies by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 31,206 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,326,000 after buying an additional 260 shares during the period. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. increased its position in Williams Companies by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 8,061 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $368,000 after buying an additional 275 shares during the period. 86.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.29, for a total value of $90,580.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 304,200 shares in the company, valued at $13,777,218. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WMB has been the topic of a number of research reports. Barclays boosted their price objective on Williams Companies from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $52.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Friday, October 4th. StockNews.com cut Williams Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, CIBC boosted their price objective on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Williams Companies presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $50.38.

Williams Companies Trading Up 4.3 %

Shares of WMB opened at $55.33 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12-month low of $32.65 and a 12-month high of $55.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $67.43 billion, a PE ratio of 23.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.84 and a beta of 1.03. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $48.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $44.14.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $2.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 27.11%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.42 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a $0.475 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.43%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is presently 81.55%.

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.