D.B. Root & Company LLC Sells 545 Shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

D.B. Root & Company LLC decreased its stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 3.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 17,919 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 545 shares during the period. D.B. Root & Company LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $970,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Williams Companies by 19.0% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 35,734,666 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,631,288,000 after buying an additional 5,697,605 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 3,490.2% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,600,239 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $86,605,000 after purchasing an additional 1,555,667 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 224.1% during the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,334,307 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $60,909,000 after purchasing an additional 922,550 shares during the last quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP raised its position in Williams Companies by 31.7% in the 3rd quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP now owns 2,989,278 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $136,461,000 after purchasing an additional 718,915 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Williams Companies by 1.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 30,722,702 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,398,004,000 after purchasing an additional 520,663 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Trading Down 2.3 %

WMB opened at $59.22 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67. The firm has a market cap of $72.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.99, a PEG ratio of 5.44 and a beta of 1.06. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12 month low of $32.65 and a 12 month high of $61.46. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $56.33 and a 200-day moving average price of $50.12.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by $0.01. Williams Companies had a net margin of 27.36% and a return on equity of 15.89%. 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 previous year, the company posted $0.45 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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 was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.21%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is 80.17%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Williams Companies

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on WMB shares. Mizuho increased their price target on Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. UBS Group increased their target price on Williams Companies from $55.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Scotiabank reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $51.00 target price on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, 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 research report on Friday, October 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $53.00.

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.