Cetera Trust Company N.A Sells 244 Shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Cetera Trust Company N.A decreased its stake in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 10.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,191 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 244 shares during the period. Cetera Trust Company N.A’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $119,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of 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 worth $1,631,288,000 after acquiring an additional 5,697,605 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of 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 worth $330,470,000 after acquiring an additional 67,016 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank increased its position in shares of Williams Companies by 0.3% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 3,617,300 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $165,130,000 after acquiring an additional 9,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC grew its position in Williams Companies by 3.4% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 3,271,141 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $149,326,000 after purchasing an additional 108,675 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Williams Companies

In related news, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 7,951 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.30, for a total transaction of $447,641.30. Following the transaction, 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 transaction 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.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WMB has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $55.00 target price for the company. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $52.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $46.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, CIBC raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $53.00.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

NYSE WMB opened at $60.48 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $56.26 and a 200-day moving average of $50.05. 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 stock has a market cap of $73.73 billion, a PE ratio of 25.42, a P/E/G ratio of 5.30 and a beta of 1.06. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52-week low of $32.65 and a 52-week high of $61.04.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.52 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 27.36% and a return on equity of 15.89%. Williams Companies’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.45 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.92 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th were paid a dividend of $0.475 per share. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.14%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is presently 80.17%.

Williams Companies 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.