VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC Trims Stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC reduced its stake in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 6.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 37,946 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 2,651 shares during the quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $2,120,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Williams Companies by 19.0% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 35,734,666 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,631,288,000 after acquiring an additional 5,697,605 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised 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 valued at $1,398,004,000 after acquiring an additional 520,663 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Williams Companies by 0.9% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,239,210 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $330,470,000 after acquiring an additional 67,016 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank raised its position in Williams Companies by 0.3% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 3,617,300 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $165,130,000 after acquiring an additional 9,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its position in Williams Companies by 3.4% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 3,271,141 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $149,326,000 after acquiring an additional 108,675 shares in the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on WMB shares. Barclays boosted their price objective on Williams Companies from $46.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Williams Companies from $55.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Williams Companies from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Scotiabank restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $51.00 price objective on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $53.29.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WMB opened at $58.46 on Friday. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12 month low of $34.13 and a 12 month high of $61.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 0.50 and a quick ratio of 0.45. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $56.09 and its 200-day simple moving average is $52.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $71.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.00 and a beta of 1.04.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The pipeline company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 15.85% and a net margin of 21.17%. As a group, equities 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 declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. This is an increase from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.42%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is currently 103.83%.

Williams Companies Company 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.