Values First Advisors Inc. Sells 6,702 Shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Values First Advisors Inc. lowered its stake in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 52.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 6,195 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 6,702 shares during the quarter. Values First Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $216,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in Williams Companies by 96,588.4% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 63,423,739 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,086,641,000 after buying an additional 63,358,143 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in Williams Companies by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 19,750,630 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $649,796,000 after purchasing an additional 136,216 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its holdings in Williams Companies by 85.8% during the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 16,352,215 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $546,327,000 after purchasing an additional 7,551,749 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in Williams Companies by 8.1% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 14,455,063 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $486,991,000 after purchasing an additional 1,089,150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its holdings in Williams Companies by 7.3% during the third quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 13,628,627 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $459,148,000 after purchasing an additional 921,537 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of WMB stock traded up $0.41 during trading on Thursday, hitting $38.95. The company had a trading volume of 6,720,431 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,153,056. The stock has a market capitalization of $47.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.05 and a beta of 1.04. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $28.27 and a 52 week high of $39.09. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $35.50 and its two-hundred day moving average is $35.15. The company has a quick ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The pipeline company reported $0.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.01. Williams Companies had a net margin of 29.22% and a return on equity of 16.20%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.53 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th will be given a dividend of $0.475 per share. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.88%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is 72.52%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on WMB. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 7th. Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $41.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $38.09.

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.