Everence Capital Management Inc. Takes Position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Everence Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 54,060 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,926,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in WMB. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Williams Companies by 19.0% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 35,734,666 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,631,288,000 after purchasing an additional 5,697,605 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings 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 buying an additional 520,663 shares during the last quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. raised its position in Williams Companies by 1.2% during the second quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. now owns 12,670,175 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $538,482,000 after acquiring an additional 144,713 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Williams Companies by 3.3% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,648,918 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $410,064,000 after acquiring an additional 311,530 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bahl & Gaynor Inc. grew its position in shares of Williams Companies by 8.8% in the 2nd quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 7,664,152 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $325,726,000 after acquiring an additional 618,056 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WMB has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. CIBC boosted their target price on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Citigroup raised their price target on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $52.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Friday, October 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $52.07.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 7,951 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.30, for a total transaction of $447,641.30. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 25,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,455,805.40. This trade represents a 23.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of NYSE WMB traded up $0.72 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $56.60. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,531,427 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,565,031. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $55.31 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $48.58. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $32.65 and a fifty-two week high of $60.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a current ratio of 0.57. The company has a market cap of $69.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.88, a P/E/G ratio of 5.60 and a beta of 1.05.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.01. Williams Companies had a net margin of 27.36% and a return on equity of 15.89%. The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.52 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.45 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th were paid a $0.475 dividend. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 80.17%.

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.