First Bank & Trust Has $4.05 Million Stock Holdings in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

First Bank & Trust trimmed its stake in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 0.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 103,840 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 287 shares during the quarter. Williams Companies makes up about 0.8% of First Bank & Trust’s portfolio, making the stock its 21st largest holding. First Bank & Trust’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $4,047,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Williams Companies in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $306,417,000. ETF Store Inc. increased its position in Williams Companies by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. ETF Store Inc. now owns 28,444 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $991,000 after acquiring an additional 899 shares during the period. Eagle Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Williams Companies by 24.5% in the 4th quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,636,222 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $91,820,000 after acquiring an additional 518,009 shares during the period. Rheos Capital Works Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 59.0% in the 4th quarter. Rheos Capital Works Inc. now owns 660,000 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $22,988,000 after purchasing an additional 245,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 6.1% in the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,350,514 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $49,037,000 after purchasing an additional 77,524 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WMB has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $43.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 13th. CIBC upped their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. Finally, Wolfe Research reissued an “underperform” rating and set a $34.00 target price on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Williams Companies currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $41.42.

Williams Companies Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of Williams Companies stock traded up $0.26 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $42.50. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 8,506,931 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,084,668. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a one year low of $31.98 and a one year high of $43.22. The company has a market capitalization of $51.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.86, a P/E/G ratio of 6.63 and a beta of 1.05. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $40.60 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $37.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a current ratio of 0.52.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.10. Williams Companies had a net margin of 27.29% and a return on equity of 16.27%. The firm had revenue of $2.77 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.69 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.56 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 7th were issued a $0.475 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 7th. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.47%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is currently 79.83%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Debbie L. Pickle sold 38,200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.61, for a total value of $1,513,102.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 60,410 shares in the company, valued at $2,392,840.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.