HighTower Advisors LLC Acquires 117,113 Shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

HighTower Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 6.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,063,435 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after acquiring an additional 117,113 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC owned about 0.17% of Williams Companies worth $94,232,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Williams Companies by 10.7% during the 2nd quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 20,154 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $857,000 after purchasing an additional 1,946 shares during the period. CWM LLC increased its holdings in Williams Companies by 4.1% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 56,871 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,417,000 after acquiring an additional 2,236 shares in the last quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 14.4% during the second quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC now owns 43,299 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,840,000 after buying an additional 5,445 shares in the last quarter. Indiana Trust & Investment Management CO grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 441.8% during the second quarter. Indiana Trust & Investment Management CO now owns 1,322 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $56,000 after buying an additional 1,078 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Accel Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the second quarter valued at about $230,000. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Williams Companies

In other 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 value of $447,641.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 25,858 shares in the company, valued at $1,455,805.40. The trade was a 23.52 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.29, for a total transaction of $90,580.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 304,200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,777,218. This trade represents a 0.65 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently issued reports on WMB shares. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, CIBC upped their price objective on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One research 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $52.07.

Williams Companies Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:WMB opened at $56.58 on Wednesday. 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 company has a market cap of $68.97 billion, a PE ratio of 23.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.79 and a beta of 1.05. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $32.65 and a 52 week high of $60.36. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $53.06 and a 200 day simple moving average of $46.60.

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

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.475 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.36%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.