Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC Trims Stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC cut its holdings in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 2.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 172,890 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 4,395 shares during the period. Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $9,357,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Williams Companies by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 12,580 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $681,000 after acquiring an additional 635 shares during the period. Cibc World Markets Corp grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 16.3% during the 4th quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp now owns 192,351 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $10,410,000 after acquiring an additional 26,951 shares in the last quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 44.8% during the 4th quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 973 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $53,000 after acquiring an additional 301 shares in the last quarter. GLOBALT Investments LLC GA acquired a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the 4th quarter valued at $270,000. Finally, GWN Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the 4th quarter valued at $288,000. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Larry C. Larsen sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.94, for a total transaction of $455,520.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 81,265 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,627,229.10. This represents a 8.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 8,896 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.50, for a total transaction of $511,520.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 22,339 shares in the company, valued at $1,284,492.50. This represents a 28.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 139,583 shares of company stock valued at $7,563,278. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WMB has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Citigroup boosted their target price 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. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.07.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

NYSE WMB opened at $57.33 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $69.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.33, a PEG ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 1.03. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $56.78 and its 200 day simple moving average is $53.57. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $36.84 and a twelve month high of $61.46. The company has a quick ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The pipeline company reported $0.47 earnings per share 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 forecast that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.49%. 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. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is currently 109.29%.

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.