The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) Shares Sold by Sapient Capital LLC

Sapient Capital LLC decreased its holdings in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 6.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,956 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 653 shares during the quarter. Sapient Capital LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $388,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rheos Capital Works Inc. increased its stake in Williams Companies by 59.0% during the fourth quarter. Rheos Capital Works Inc. now owns 660,000 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $22,988,000 after acquiring an additional 245,000 shares during the last quarter. Autumn Glory Partners LLC increased its stake in Williams Companies by 28.1% during the third quarter. Autumn Glory Partners LLC now owns 107,609 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $3,625,000 after acquiring an additional 23,579 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Williams Companies by 35.1% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,553,779 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $321,867,000 after acquiring an additional 2,482,331 shares during the last quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. increased its stake in Williams Companies by 45.3% during the third quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 6,545,151 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $220,506,000 after acquiring an additional 2,040,993 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Williams Companies by 3,338.2% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 352,104 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $12,264,000 after acquiring an additional 341,863 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on WMB shares. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $43.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Wolfe Research reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and issued a $34.00 price objective on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 25th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $39.22.

Williams Companies Stock Down 2.2 %

NYSE:WMB traded down $0.86 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $38.36. The company had a trading volume of 7,907,240 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,989,701. The firm has a market capitalization of $46.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.64, a PEG ratio of 6.14 and a beta of 1.04. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $37.63 and its 200-day simple moving average is $35.95. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12-month low of $28.27 and a 12-month high of $39.76. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The pipeline company reported $0.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.01. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.20% and a net margin of 29.22%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.53 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.475 per share. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.95%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 72.52%.

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.