Hantz Financial Services Inc. Decreases Stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Hantz Financial Services Inc. cut its stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 10.7% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 184,578 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 22,180 shares during the period. Hantz Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $11,693,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of WMB. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 1.5% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,075,340 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $8,358,462,000 after buying an additional 1,912,156 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Williams Companies by 27.3% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 14,417,821 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $905,583,000 after acquiring an additional 3,089,390 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Williams Companies during the 2nd quarter valued at about $765,164,000. BROOKFIELD Corp ON grew its stake in Williams Companies by 190.3% during the 2nd quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 12,028,186 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $755,490,000 after purchasing an additional 7,884,730 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 9.9% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 10,056,234 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $631,632,000 after purchasing an additional 903,457 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

WMB opened at $68.45 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $61.47 and a 200 day moving average price of $60.21. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $51.58 and a 1 year high of $68.70. The stock has a market cap of $83.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.29, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73, a current ratio of 0.42 and a quick ratio of 0.36.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $2.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.87 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 20.61% and a return on equity of 16.74%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.43 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is a boost from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.1%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is 103.09%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Williams Companies

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 4,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.53, for a total value of $242,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 302,645 shares in the company, valued at $18,319,101.85. The trade was a 1.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 8,000 shares of company stock valued at $498,700. 0.44% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WMB has been the subject of a number of research reports. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Monday, January 12th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 13th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $71.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 6th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $72.00 to $70.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $68.64.

Williams Companies Profile

Williams Companies, Inc (NYSE: WMB) is a U.S.-based energy infrastructure company focused on the midstream segment of the natural gas value chain. The company develops, owns and operates assets that gather, process, transport and store natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGLs). Its operations support the movement of gas from production areas to end users including utilities, power generators, industrial customers and export facilities.

Williams’s product and service offering includes interstate and intrastate pipeline transmission, gas-gathering systems, processing facilities that remove impurities and separate NGLs, storage services and fractionation and transportation of NGL products.