Cooke & Bieler LP Sells 638 Shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Cooke & Bieler LP cut its holdings in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 7.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 8,250 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 638 shares during the period. Cooke & Bieler LP’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $446,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of WMB. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Williams Companies by 19.0% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 35,734,666 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,631,288,000 after acquiring an additional 5,697,605 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Williams Companies by 1.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 30,722,702 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,398,004,000 after acquiring an additional 520,663 shares during the last quarter. Amundi lifted its position in Williams Companies by 28.8% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 8,781,963 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $495,215,000 after acquiring an additional 1,964,421 shares during the last quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. lifted its position in Williams Companies by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 8,425,933 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $456,012,000 after acquiring an additional 234,423 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Williams Companies by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,405,951 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $400,810,000 after acquiring an additional 166,741 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Williams Companies stock opened at $54.00 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $56.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $53.26. The company has a market capitalization of $65.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 1.03. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $35.88 and a 1 year high of $61.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.50.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The pipeline company reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates 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 expect that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share 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 issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.70%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is 109.29%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. CIBC raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $55.07.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Micheal G. Dunn sold 96,687 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.04, for a total transaction of $5,128,278.48. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 714,693 shares in the company, valued at approximately $37,907,316.72. The trade was a 11.92 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 8,896 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 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 131,583 shares of company stock worth $7,107,758. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.