River Road Asset Management LLC Sells 373,541 Shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

River Road Asset Management LLC trimmed its holdings in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 22.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,309,695 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 373,541 shares during the period. River Road Asset Management LLC owned 0.11% of Williams Companies worth $45,617,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in WMB. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Williams Companies by 96,588.4% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 63,423,739 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,086,641,000 after buying an additional 63,358,143 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $292,176,000. Royal Bank of Canada raised its position in shares of Williams Companies by 85.8% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 16,352,215 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $546,327,000 after buying an additional 7,551,749 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Williams Companies by 200.1% in the second quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,286,535 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $164,993,000 after buying an additional 3,525,097 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position 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 valued at $321,867,000 after buying an additional 2,482,331 shares in the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of NYSE WMB traded up $0.03 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $37.68. 6,122,817 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,093,245. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $36.72 and its 200-day moving average price is $35.62. The stock has a market cap of $45.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.37, a PEG ratio of 5.88 and a beta of 1.05. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a one year low of $28.27 and a one year high of $39.76. The company has a quick ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The pipeline company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 in the previous year, the business earned $0.53 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.475 dividend. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.04%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is 72.52%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on WMB. Barclays lifted their price target 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. Truist Financial boosted their price objective 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. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective 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. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.00.

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.