Board of the Pension Protection Fund Purchases 5,800 Shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB)

Board of the Pension Protection Fund lifted its position in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 43.6% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 19,100 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,800 shares during the period. Williams Companies makes up 1.3% of Board of the Pension Protection Fund’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest position. Board of the Pension Protection Fund’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $1,141,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Williams Companies during the fourth quarter worth about $575,103,000. Blackstone Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 36.5% during the fourth quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 18,954,088 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,025,795,000 after purchasing an additional 5,068,738 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 2,303.2% during the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 3,517,336 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $190,358,000 after purchasing an additional 3,370,974 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Williams Companies by 6,407.2% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,238,490 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $133,772,000 after purchasing an additional 2,204,090 shares during the period. Finally, Castle Hook Partners LP raised its position in shares of Williams Companies by 69.1% during the 4th quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP now owns 5,055,184 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $273,587,000 after purchasing an additional 2,065,906 shares during the period. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on WMB shares. Barclays boosted their price objective on Williams Companies from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. CIBC raised their target price on Williams Companies from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $58.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $52.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 5th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $61.25.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of WMB opened at $62.85 on Friday. Williams Companies, Inc. has a one year low of $40.41 and a one year high of $62.95. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $59.31 and its 200-day moving average is $57.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $76.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.48 and a beta of 0.65.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $3.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.90 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 21.18% and a return on equity of 15.95%. Williams Companies’s revenue was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.59 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 106.95%.

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.