Norges Bank Buys Shares of 12,182,197 Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Norges Bank bought a new stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 12,182,197 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $765,164,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Williams Companies in the first quarter valued at $335,419,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in Williams Companies by 45.0% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 11,339,078 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $677,623,000 after acquiring an additional 3,519,370 shares in the last quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. lifted its position in Williams Companies by 34.0% during the first quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 11,287,921 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $674,566,000 after buying an additional 2,861,988 shares during the period. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership boosted its stake in Williams Companies by 39.0% in the 2nd quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 6,954,733 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $436,827,000 after buying an additional 1,950,485 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Voya Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 275.7% in the 1st quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 2,609,318 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $155,933,000 after buying an additional 1,914,730 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 4,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.53, for a total transaction of $242,120.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 302,645 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,319,101.85. The trade was a 1.30% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WMB has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. 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. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Friday, October 17th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Williams Companies from $70.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, Argus restated a “buy” rating and set a $66.00 price target on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $68.21.

Williams Companies Trading Up 1.2%

Shares of WMB opened at $60.96 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73, a current ratio of 0.54 and a quick ratio of 0.48. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12 month low of $51.58 and a 12 month high of $65.55. The stock has a market cap of $74.44 billion, a PE ratio of 30.63, a P/E/G ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.63. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $60.86 and its two-hundred day moving average is $59.52.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $2.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.87 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.23% and a net margin of 21.63%.The business’s revenue was up 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.43 earnings per share. Williams Companies has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.010-2.190 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 12th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 12th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.3%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is 103.09%.

Williams Companies 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.