AGF Management Ltd. Sells 379,165 Shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

AGF Management Ltd. reduced its stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 22.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,306,469 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 379,165 shares during the quarter. AGF Management Ltd. owned 0.11% of Williams Companies worth $70,706,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in WMB. Quent Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Williams Companies during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Bank of Jackson Hole Trust purchased a new stake in Williams Companies during the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. AlphaMark Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Compass Planning Associates Inc bought a new stake in shares of Williams Companies during the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, Financial Life Planners bought a new position in shares of Williams Companies in the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on WMB shares. UBS Group raised 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. CIBC increased their price target on Williams Companies from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.07.

Williams Companies Trading Down 0.7 %

NYSE WMB opened at $54.00 on Tuesday. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a one year low of $35.88 and a one year 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 fifty day moving average is $56.70 and its 200-day moving average is $53.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $65.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.51, a PEG ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 1.03.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The pipeline company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.47. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 15.85% and a net margin of 21.17%. Equities research analysts predict that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. 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 3.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is currently 109.29%.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Micheal G. Dunn sold 96,687 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 714,693 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $37,907,316.72. The trade was a 11.92 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Chad A. Teply sold 26,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.46, for a total value of $1,467,960.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 133,048 shares in the company, valued at $7,511,890.08. This trade represents a 16.35 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 131,583 shares of company stock valued at $7,107,758 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

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.