Cornerstone Advisors LLC Has $837,000 Stock Position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Cornerstone Advisors LLC lowered its position in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 13.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 19,700 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 3,100 shares during the quarter. Cornerstone Advisors LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $837,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its position in Williams Companies by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 20,983,727 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $817,736,000 after acquiring an additional 1,175,628 shares during the last quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. now owns 12,670,175 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $538,482,000 after buying an additional 144,713 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 21.3% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,593,482 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $403,801,000 after buying an additional 2,039,703 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,648,918 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $410,064,000 after buying an additional 311,530 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $306,417,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Shares of WMB stock opened at $45.46 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $55.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.10, a PEG ratio of 6.19 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a current ratio of 0.45. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $43.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.13. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $32.49 and a 52 week high of $45.81.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 5th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $2.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 27.11% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.42 EPS. On average, sell-side 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be issued a $0.475 dividend. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is currently 79.83%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on WMB shares. StockNews.com downgraded Williams Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Barclays increased their price objective on Williams Companies from $41.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 19th. Wells Fargo & Company raised Williams Companies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $38.00 to $46.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 4th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Williams Companies from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, Argus raised Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $42.83.

Williams Companies 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.