Adirondack Trust Co. Cuts Stock Position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Adirondack Trust Co. cut its holdings in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 6.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,163 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 726 shares during the quarter. Adirondack Trust Co.’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $607,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Golden State Equity Partners lifted its position in Williams Companies by 319.9% in the 4th quarter. Golden State Equity Partners now owns 12,038 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $651,000 after acquiring an additional 9,171 shares in the last quarter. Myriad Asset Management US LP bought a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the 4th quarter valued at $995,000. ING Groep NV lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 266.6% during the 4th quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 155,694 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $8,426,000 after buying an additional 113,227 shares during the period. Fractal Investments LLC raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 27.6% in the 4th quarter. Fractal Investments LLC now owns 531,500 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $28,765,000 after purchasing an additional 115,000 shares during the period. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 183,317 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $9,224,000 after purchasing an additional 7,618 shares during the period. 86.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Larry C. Larsen sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.94, for a total value of $455,520.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 81,265 shares in the company, valued at $4,627,229.10. The trade was a 8.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 8,896 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.50, for a total transaction of $511,520.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 22,339 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,284,492.50. This trade represents a 28.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 113,583 shares of company stock valued at $6,095,318. 0.44% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WMB has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Williams Companies from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Barclays raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Citigroup raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, CIBC raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $60.75.

Williams Companies Stock Up 0.7%

Shares of NYSE WMB opened at $60.53 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $73.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.08, a PEG ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 0.66. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $58.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $57.17. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52-week low of $40.06 and a 52-week high of $61.67.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $3.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.90 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 21.17% and a return on equity of 15.85%. Williams Companies’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.59 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.30%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 13th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is currently 106.95%.

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.