V Square Quantitative Management LLC Sells 686 Shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

V Square Quantitative Management LLC lessened its stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 3.1% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 21,100 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 686 shares during the quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $897,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of WMB. Rise Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Williams Companies during the 1st quarter worth $27,000. Western Pacific Wealth Management LP bought a new stake in Williams Companies in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Fairman Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp bought a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the first quarter valued at about $46,000. Finally, EntryPoint Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the first quarter valued at about $50,000. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on WMB shares. Argus raised shares of Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 20th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, June 10th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $38.00 to $46.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 4th. Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Wolfe Research restated an “underperform” rating and set a $34.00 price objective on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $42.50.

Williams Companies Price Performance

WMB traded up $0.29 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $43.41. 1,825,817 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,575,971. The company has a market cap of $52.91 billion, a PE ratio of 18.12, a P/E/G ratio of 6.82 and a beta of 1.05. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $42.48 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $39.39. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $32.49 and a 1 year high of $45.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its earnings results on Monday, August 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.05. Williams Companies had a net margin of 27.11% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The company had revenue of $2.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.42 earnings per share. Williams Companies’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be issued a $0.475 dividend. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.38%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 79.83%.

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.