Axxcess Wealth Management LLC Sells 34,702 Shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Axxcess Wealth Management LLC cut its stake in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 48.5% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 36,864 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 34,702 shares during the quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $1,567,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 5.9% during the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 20,983,727 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $817,736,000 after acquiring an additional 1,175,628 shares during the period. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 1.2% during the second quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. now owns 12,670,175 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $538,482,000 after acquiring an additional 144,713 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 21.3% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,593,482 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $403,801,000 after acquiring an additional 2,039,703 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 3.3% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,648,918 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $410,064,000 after acquiring an additional 311,530 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the fourth quarter valued at $306,417,000. 86.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on WMB. Truist Financial raised their target price on Williams Companies from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. 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 research note on Tuesday, June 4th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Barclays lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $41.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 19th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. One 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $43.50.

Williams Companies Trading Down 0.8 %

NYSE:WMB opened at $45.18 on Thursday. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $32.49 and a fifty-two week high of $45.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64, a current ratio of 0.45 and a quick ratio of 0.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $55.06 billion, a PE ratio of 18.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.24 and a beta of 1.05. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $43.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.23.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $2.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 27.11%. Williams Companies’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.42 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be paid a $0.475 dividend. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.21%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is 79.83%.

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.