California Public Employees Retirement System Sells 60,414 Shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

California Public Employees Retirement System cut its stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 2.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,211,531 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 60,414 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $77,028,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 3.9% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 19,086,234 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $643,015,000 after acquiring an additional 712,048 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 8.1% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 14,455,063 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $486,991,000 after acquiring an additional 1,089,150 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 7.3% in the third quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 13,628,627 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $459,148,000 after acquiring an additional 921,537 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 0.6% in the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 11,301,527 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $380,748,000 after acquiring an additional 68,674 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 35.1% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,553,779 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $321,867,000 after acquiring an additional 2,482,331 shares during the period. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

WMB opened at $39.25 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $47.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.98, a PEG ratio of 6.07 and a beta of 1.05. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1-year low of $28.27 and a 1-year high of $39.76. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $37.25 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $35.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.73.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The pipeline company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.01. Williams Companies had a net margin of 29.22% and a return on equity of 16.20%. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.53 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $0.475 dividend. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.84%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is currently 72.52%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on WMB. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $43.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Wolfe Research restated an “underperform” rating and set a $34.00 target price on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.22.

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.