Cooke & Bieler LP Cuts Stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Cooke & Bieler LP lowered its position in shares of The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 17.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,570,149 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 775,578 shares during the quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP owned 0.29% of Williams Companies worth $124,348,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of WMB. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Williams Companies during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. FSC Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the 3rd quarter worth $27,000. HWG Holdings LP acquired a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the 3rd quarter worth $29,000. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 52.5% during the 2nd quarter. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. now owns 915 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 315 shares during the period. Finally, Carmel Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the 3rd quarter worth $31,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. 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 note on Friday, April 12th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 25th. Finally, Wolfe Research reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and set a $34.00 price target on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Williams Companies currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $39.22.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of NYSE WMB opened at $38.51 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $46.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.70, a PEG ratio of 6.02 and a beta of 1.05. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $28.27 and a 52 week high of $39.76. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $36.95 and its 200 day moving average price is $35.70. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The pipeline company reported $0.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 last year, the business posted $0.53 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.475 dividend. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.93%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.