Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC Takes Position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC bought a new stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 4,164 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $225,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of WMB. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of Williams Companies by 19.0% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 35,734,666 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,631,288,000 after buying an additional 5,697,605 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in shares of Williams Companies by 3,490.2% in 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 buying an additional 1,555,667 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI grew its position in shares of Williams Companies by 224.1% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,334,307 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $60,909,000 after buying an additional 922,550 shares during the last quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP grew its position in shares of 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 valued at $136,461,000 after buying an additional 718,915 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of 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 owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Williams Companies Stock Up 3.5 %

Shares of NYSE:WMB opened at $58.25 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $71.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.83, a PEG ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 1.04. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $56.53 and its 200-day simple moving average is $52.79. The company has a quick ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $35.38 and a fifty-two week high of $61.46.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The pipeline company reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, meeting 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, equities research analysts predict that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. This is a boost from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.43%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 109.29%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $55.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Scotiabank reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $51.00 price objective on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $46.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $54.21.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Chad A. Teply sold 26,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction dated 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. The trade was a 16.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

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.