Gateway Investment Advisers LLC Decreases Position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Gateway Investment Advisers LLC lowered its stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 12.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,016 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 566 shares during the quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $217,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Williams Companies by 19.0% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 35,734,666 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,631,288,000 after acquiring an additional 5,697,605 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 3,490.2% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,600,239 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $86,605,000 after purchasing an additional 1,555,667 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI increased its stake in Williams Companies by 224.1% during the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,334,307 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $60,909,000 after buying an additional 922,550 shares during the period. Castle Hook Partners LP lifted its holdings in Williams Companies by 31.7% in the 3rd quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP now owns 2,989,278 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $136,461,000 after buying an additional 718,915 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Williams Companies by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 30,722,702 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,398,004,000 after buying an additional 520,663 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on WMB shares. Morgan Stanley raised Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $52.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Mizuho upped their target price on Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Scotiabank reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $51.00 target price on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $46.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, CIBC increased their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $53.00.

Williams Companies Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE WMB opened at $59.22 on Monday. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12-month low of $32.65 and a 12-month high of $60.36. The company has a market cap of $72.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.36 and a beta of 1.06. 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 stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $56.13 and its 200 day simple moving average is $49.76.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.01. Williams Companies had a net margin of 27.36% and a return on equity of 15.89%. The company had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.52 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.45 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.92 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th were paid a $0.475 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.21%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is currently 80.17%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 7,951 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.30, for a total transaction of $447,641.30. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 25,858 shares in the company, valued at $1,455,805.40. The trade was a 23.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

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.