Wellington Management Group LLP Sells 7,791,039 Shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Wellington Management Group LLP cut its holdings in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 21.8% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 27,943,627 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 7,791,039 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $1,512,309,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in WMB. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Williams Companies by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 130,356,165 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $7,054,876,000 after buying an additional 1,008,213 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Williams Companies by 1.7% during the third 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 period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Williams Companies during the 4th quarter valued at $575,103,000. Amundi boosted its holdings in Williams Companies by 28.8% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 8,781,963 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $495,215,000 after purchasing an additional 1,964,421 shares during the period. Finally, Bahl & Gaynor Inc. grew its position in Williams Companies by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 8,425,933 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $456,012,000 after purchasing an additional 234,423 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. CIBC upped their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Williams Companies from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Barclays raised their target price on Williams Companies from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, March 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $56.07.

Williams Companies Stock Down 0.3 %

NYSE WMB opened at $59.24 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $57.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is $54.60. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a one year low of $37.18 and a one year high of $61.67. The firm has a market cap of $72.24 billion, a PE ratio of 32.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 0.50 and a quick ratio of 0.45.

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 return on equity of 15.85% and a net margin of 21.17%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 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 paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.38%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is currently 109.29%.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO Micheal G. Dunn sold 96,687 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.04, for a total value of $5,128,278.48. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 714,693 shares in the company, valued at $37,907,316.72. This trade represents a 11.92 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Chad A. Teply sold 26,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.46, for a total transaction of $1,467,960.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 133,048 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,511,890.08. The trade was a 16.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 139,583 shares of company stock valued at $7,563,278 over the last three months. 0.44% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.