Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC Has $344,000 Position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC boosted its position in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 10.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 6,355 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 627 shares during the quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $344,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft now owns 5,568 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $300,000 after purchasing an additional 180 shares during the period. Albion Financial Group UT lifted its stake in Williams Companies by 18.4% in the fourth quarter. Albion Financial Group UT now owns 1,184 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $64,000 after buying an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. Sprinkle Financial Consultants LLC lifted its stake in Williams Companies by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Sprinkle Financial Consultants LLC now owns 5,073 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $275,000 after buying an additional 185 shares in the last quarter. AMG National Trust Bank lifted its stake in Williams Companies by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. AMG National Trust Bank now owns 30,813 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,669,000 after buying an additional 186 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GHP Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Williams Companies by 24.4% in the fourth quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 995 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $54,000 after buying an additional 195 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Williams Companies news, COO Micheal G. Dunn sold 96,687 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.04, for a total value of $5,128,278.48. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 714,693 shares in the company, valued at $37,907,316.72. The trade was a 11.92 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Chad A. Teply sold 26,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.46, for a total transaction of $1,467,960.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 133,048 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,511,890.08. This represents a 16.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 131,583 shares of company stock valued at $7,107,758. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WMB has been the topic of a number of research reports. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $46.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $55.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.07.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

NYSE WMB opened at $54.00 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $56.70 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $53.26. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $35.88 and a 1 year high of $61.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $65.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 1.03.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The pipeline company reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.47. Williams Companies had a net margin of 21.17% and a return on equity of 15.85%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This is a positive change from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is 109.29%.

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.