LGT Group Foundation Has $865,000 Position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

LGT Group Foundation increased its position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 7.5% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 15,986 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,116 shares during the quarter. LGT Group Foundation’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $865,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in WMB. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Williams Companies by 19.0% during 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 purchasing an additional 5,697,605 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position 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 during the period. National Bank of Canada FI increased its position 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 valued at $60,909,000 after purchasing an additional 922,550 shares during the period. Castle Hook Partners LP boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 31.7% during 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 holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 30,722,702 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,398,004,000 after buying an additional 520,663 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In related news, SVP Chad A. Teply sold 26,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.46, for a total value of $1,467,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 133,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,511,890.08. This represents a 16.35 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on WMB. Scotiabank restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $51.00 price target on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Friday, January 10th. Citigroup increased their price target on Williams Companies from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. UBS Group increased their price target on Williams Companies from $55.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Mizuho increased their price target on Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $54.21.

Williams Companies Trading Down 1.1 %

NYSE WMB opened at $57.52 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $70.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.43, a PEG ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 1.04. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $56.60 and a 200 day simple moving average of $52.89. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12 month low of $35.74 and a 12 month high of $61.46. The company has a current ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The pipeline company reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 15.85% and a net margin of 21.17%. On average, analysts predict that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $0.50 dividend. This is a positive change from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is presently 109.29%.

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.