HF Advisory Group LLC Cuts Position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

HF Advisory Group LLC reduced its stake in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 15.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 14,029 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 2,570 shares during the quarter. HF Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $759,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new stake in shares of Williams Companies during the fourth quarter valued at about $720,000. Brendel Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in Williams Companies by 0.8% during the third quarter. Brendel Financial Advisors LLC now owns 51,927 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,370,000 after acquiring an additional 419 shares during the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Williams Companies by 17.0% in the fourth quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 75,278 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $4,074,000 after acquiring an additional 10,950 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Williams Companies in the third quarter worth $545,000. Finally, Swiss National Bank grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 0.3% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 3,617,300 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $165,130,000 after purchasing an additional 9,800 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Bank of America started coverage on Williams Companies in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $55.00 target price on the stock. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $52.00 to $58.00 in a report on Friday, October 4th. Citigroup lifted their price target on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, CIBC increased their price objective on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $53.00.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In other Williams Companies news, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 7,951 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.30, for a total transaction of $447,641.30. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 25,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,455,805.40. The trade was a 23.52 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of Williams Companies stock opened at $59.22 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $72.19 billion, a PE ratio of 24.99, a P/E/G ratio of 5.36 and a beta of 1.06. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $32.65 and a twelve month high of $60.36. The company has a quick ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $56.13 and a 200 day moving average price of $49.71.

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

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th were given a dividend of $0.475 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.21%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 80.17%.

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.