New York State Common Retirement Fund Has $44.99 Million Stock Holdings in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB)

Posted by Defense World Staff on Apr 14th, 2023

New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its stake in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB – Get Rating) by 1.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,367,552 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after acquiring an additional 20,500 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned approximately 0.11% of Williams Companies worth $44,992,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fairfield Bush & CO. acquired a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the 1st quarter worth $54,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 32.3% during the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 10,414 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $347,000 after buying an additional 2,540 shares in the last quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 1,001.1% during the 1st quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 101,026 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $3,375,000 after buying an additional 91,851 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 42.9% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 98,677 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $3,297,000 after buying an additional 29,625 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the 1st quarter worth $319,000. 85.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In other Williams Companies news, Director William H. Spence bought 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 14th. The shares were bought at an average price of $29.61 per share, for a total transaction of $148,050.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 48,521 shares in the company, valued at $1,436,706.81. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.44% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Williams Companies Trading Up 0.6 %

NYSE WMB opened at $30.50 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $30.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $31.56. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12 month low of $27.80 and a 12 month high of $37.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $37.17 billion, a PE ratio of 18.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.73 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 20th. The pipeline company reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.06. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.02% and a net margin of 18.69%. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.18 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.39 EPS. On average, analysts expect that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.82 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 27th. Investors of record on Monday, March 13th were given a dividend of $0.4475 per share. This is a positive change from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 10th. This represents a $1.79 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.87%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is presently 106.55%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Mizuho lowered their price target on Williams Companies from $40.00 to $39.00 in a report on Friday, December 16th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Williams Companies from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 22nd. Argus lowered Williams Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 28th. US Capital Advisors upgraded Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 31st. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lowered Williams Companies from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $37.00 to $34.00 in a research report on Monday, February 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.30.

About Williams Companies

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The Williams Cos., Inc operates as an energy infrastructure company, which explores, produces, transports, sells and processes natural gas and petroleum products. It operates through the following segments: Transmission and Gulf of Mexico, Northeast G&P, and West. The Transmission and Gulf of Mexico segment consists of interstate natural gas pipelines, the Transco and Northwest Pipelines, as well as natural gas gathering and processing and crude oil production handling and transportation assets in the Gulf Coast region.