Compass Wealth Management LLC Lowers Stock Position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Compass Wealth Management LLC lowered its position in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 115,174 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 4,950 shares during the quarter. Williams Companies comprises approximately 1.2% of Compass Wealth Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 28th biggest position. Compass Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $5,258,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vontobel Holding Ltd. raised its position in shares of Williams Companies by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 21,590 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $986,000 after purchasing an additional 347 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. raised its position in shares of Williams Companies by 17.5% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. now owns 64,059 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,924,000 after purchasing an additional 9,561 shares during the last quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Williams Companies by 25.6% in the 3rd quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,709 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $443,000 after purchasing an additional 1,976 shares during the last quarter. Occidental Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Williams Companies by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. Occidental Asset Management LLC now owns 88,594 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $4,044,000 after purchasing an additional 2,817 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Creative Planning raised its position in shares of Williams Companies by 9.9% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 199,046 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $9,086,000 after purchasing an additional 17,983 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on WMB. Argus raised Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 20th. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Williams Companies from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Barclays boosted their price target on Williams Companies from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Bank of America started coverage on Williams Companies in a research note on Thursday. They set a “buy” rating and a $55.00 price target for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $47.46.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.29, for a total value of $90,580.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 304,200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,777,218. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.44% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Shares of WMB stock traded up $0.21 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $51.58. 2,590,448 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,267,986. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12-month low of $32.65 and a 12-month high of $52.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64, a current ratio of 0.45 and a quick ratio of 0.39. The company has a market cap of $62.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.04, a P/E/G ratio of 7.10 and a beta of 1.05. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $45.95 and a 200 day moving average price of $42.69.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.05. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 27.11%. The company had revenue of $2.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.42 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 27th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th were issued a $0.475 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.68%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is presently 81.55%.

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.