Texas Permanent School Fund Corp Has $8.55 Million Stock Position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Texas Permanent School Fund Corp cut its holdings in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 20.0% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 201,055 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 50,351 shares during the quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $8,545,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its position in Williams Companies by 36.1% during the fourth quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 147,923 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $5,152,000 after purchasing an additional 39,215 shares in the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 11.0% during the 4th quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 14,707 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $512,000 after acquiring an additional 1,457 shares in the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 26,954 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $939,000 after acquiring an additional 1,734 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 149,432 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $5,205,000 after acquiring an additional 4,130 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC boosted its position in Williams Companies by 16.2% during the fourth quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 39,701 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,383,000 after purchasing an additional 5,536 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have weighed in on WMB shares. Seaport Res Ptn lowered Williams Companies from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Argus raised shares of Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 20th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $38.00 to $46.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 4th. One research 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 company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $42.83.

Williams Companies Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of Williams Companies stock opened at $44.80 on Wednesday. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $32.49 and a 1 year high of $45.81. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $43.65 and its 200-day simple moving average is $40.86. The company has a market cap of $54.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.82, a PEG ratio of 6.08 and a beta of 1.05. 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 quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.42 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be given a $0.475 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.24%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is currently 79.83%.

Williams Companies 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.