Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC Buys New Shares in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 5,000 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $212,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in WMB. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Williams Companies in the fourth quarter valued at $306,417,000. Blackstone Inc. raised its stake in Williams Companies by 109.1% during the 1st quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 6,466,660 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $252,006,000 after buying an additional 3,373,800 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Williams Companies by 21.3% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,593,482 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $403,801,000 after acquiring an additional 2,039,703 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in Williams Companies by 40.1% in the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 5,753,223 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $224,203,000 after acquiring an additional 1,647,469 shares during the period. Finally, First Financial Bankshares Inc acquired a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the fourth quarter worth approximately $56,223,000. 86.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Argus upgraded Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 20th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $38.00 to $46.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 4th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Williams Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $42.83.

Williams Companies Price Performance

NYSE WMB traded up $0.24 on Thursday, reaching $44.69. 228,460 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,397,484. The stock has a market cap of $54.47 billion, a PE ratio of 18.68, a P/E/G ratio of 6.29 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64, a current ratio of 0.45 and a quick ratio of 0.39. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12 month low of $32.49 and a 12 month high of $45.81. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $43.47 and a 200 day simple moving average of $40.53.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $2.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 27.11%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.42 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.475 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.25%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is presently 79.83%.

Williams Companies Company 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.