Aptus Capital Advisors LLC Raises Stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Aptus Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 4.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 12,357 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 492 shares during the period. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $564,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new position in Williams Companies in the 3rd quarter valued at about $322,000. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 6.9% in the 3rd quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 11,829 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $540,000 after purchasing an additional 764 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 1.4% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 2,873,473 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $131,174,000 after purchasing an additional 38,594 shares during the period. Apollon Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 6.3% during the third quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 32,120 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,466,000 after purchasing an additional 1,917 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 44.0% during the third quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV now owns 21,494 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $981,000 after purchasing an additional 6,565 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WMB has been the topic of several recent research reports. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $55.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. CIBC lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Barclays increased their target price on Williams Companies from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Williams Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $51.54.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Shares of WMB opened at $56.55 on Friday. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12-month low of $32.65 and a 12-month high of $57.33. The stock has a market cap of $68.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.86, a PEG ratio of 5.73 and a beta of 1.03. 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 company has a 50-day moving average of $49.69 and a two-hundred day moving average of $44.81.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.45 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a $0.475 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.36%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is currently 80.17%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Williams Companies

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.29, for a total value of $90,580.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 304,200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,777,218. This trade represents a 0.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 7,951 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.30, for a total value of $447,641.30. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 25,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,455,805.40. This trade represents a 23.52 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.