The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) Shares Purchased by Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund

Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund boosted its holdings in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 104,674 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 720 shares during the period. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $4,449,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of WMB. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Williams Companies during the 4th quarter worth approximately $306,417,000. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 15.7% in the 1st quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 108,302 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $4,221,000 after acquiring an additional 14,672 shares during the period. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S increased its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 145.5% during the first quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 95,359 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $3,716,000 after acquiring an additional 56,509 shares during the period. ETF Store Inc. raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. ETF Store Inc. now owns 28,444 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $991,000 after purchasing an additional 899 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Eagle Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Williams Companies by 24.5% in the fourth quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,636,222 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $91,820,000 after purchasing an additional 518,009 shares during the period. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded Williams Companies from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Scotiabank raised their target price on Williams Companies from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Argus raised shares of Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 20th. StockNews.com cut shares of Williams Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $42.83.

Williams Companies Price Performance

WMB stock opened at $44.45 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a current ratio of 0.45. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $43.47 and its 200 day moving average price is $40.53. The firm has a market cap of $54.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.68, a PEG ratio of 6.29 and a beta of 1.05. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $32.49 and a 1 year high of $45.81.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $2.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 27.11%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.42 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.475 per share. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.27%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is 79.83%.

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.