Hantz Financial Services Inc. Sells 22,180 Shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Hantz Financial Services Inc. lessened its stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 10.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 184,578 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 22,180 shares during the quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $11,693,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,540,556 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $287,644,000 after purchasing an additional 134,777 shares during the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 27.9% in the third quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 19,653 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,245,000 after buying an additional 4,284 shares in the last quarter. Adell Harriman & Carpenter Inc. boosted its stake in Williams Companies by 1.4% during the third quarter. Adell Harriman & Carpenter Inc. now owns 449,147 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $28,453,000 after buying an additional 6,040 shares during the last quarter. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 16.2% during the 3rd quarter. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 1,611 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $102,000 after buying an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raleigh Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 10,223 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $648,000 after buying an additional 503 shares in the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.53, for a total transaction of $242,120.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 302,645 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,319,101.85. This represents a 1.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In the last quarter, insiders sold 8,000 shares of company stock worth $498,700. 0.44% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Mizuho raised shares of Williams Companies to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 27th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $72.00 to $70.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Williams Companies from $71.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Tudor Pickering upgraded Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 1st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $68.64.

Williams Companies Trading Up 3.2%

NYSE:WMB opened at $68.45 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $83.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.29, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.65. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $51.58 and a 52 week high of $68.70. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $61.47 and a 200 day moving average of $60.21.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $2.92 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.87 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.74% and a net margin of 20.61%.Williams Companies’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.43 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 30th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is a positive change from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.1%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 103.09%.

Williams Companies Company Profile

Williams Companies, Inc (NYSE: WMB) is a U.S.-based energy infrastructure company focused on the midstream segment of the natural gas value chain. The company develops, owns and operates assets that gather, process, transport and store natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGLs). Its operations support the movement of gas from production areas to end users including utilities, power generators, industrial customers and export facilities.

Williams’s product and service offering includes interstate and intrastate pipeline transmission, gas-gathering systems, processing facilities that remove impurities and separate NGLs, storage services and fractionation and transportation of NGL products.