Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. Grows Holdings in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. grew its stake in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 15.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 17,260 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,259 shares during the quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $601,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Williams Companies by 96,588.4% during the 4th 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 bought a new stake in shares of Williams Companies during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $292,176,000. Royal Bank of Canada raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 85.8% during 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 acquiring an additional 7,551,749 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 3,525,097 shares during the period. Finally, Comerica Bank purchased a new position in Williams Companies during the 2nd quarter worth $84,275,000. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WMB has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Truist Financial increased their price target on Williams Companies from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 25th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $43.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $38.64.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of WMB opened at $38.07 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $36.58 and a two-hundred day moving average of $35.54. The company has a market cap of $46.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.13 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $28.27 and a twelve month high of $39.76.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its earnings results 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 return on equity of 16.20% and a net margin of 29.22%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.53 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $0.475 dividend. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.99%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is currently 72.52%.

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.