Payden & Rygel Has $1.75 Million Stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Payden & Rygel increased its stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 7.3% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 38,260 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,600 shares during the quarter. Payden & Rygel’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $1,747,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WMB. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. lifted its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 144,713 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 3.3% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,648,918 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $410,064,000 after purchasing an additional 311,530 shares in the last quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 8.8% in the second quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 7,664,152 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $325,726,000 after purchasing an additional 618,056 shares in the last quarter. Blackstone Inc. boosted its holdings in Williams Companies by 109.1% during the first quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 6,466,660 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $252,006,000 after purchasing an additional 3,373,800 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 20.1% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 6,117,298 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $259,985,000 after buying an additional 1,024,158 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WMB has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $55.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. CIBC upped their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Citigroup boosted their price target on Williams Companies from $45.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded Williams Companies from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Williams Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $51.54.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of WMB stock opened at $58.70 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $32.65 and a twelve month high of $59.17. The company has a market cap of $71.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.77, a P/E/G ratio of 6.04 and a beta of 1.03. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $50.76 and a 200 day simple moving average of $45.40.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.01. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 15.89% and a net margin of 27.36%. The company had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.52 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.45 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.475 per share. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is presently 80.17%.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In other Williams Companies news, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 7,951 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.30, for a total transaction of $447,641.30. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 25,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,455,805.40. This represents a 23.52 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.29, for a total transaction of $90,580.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 304,200 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,777,218. This represents a 0.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.44% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.