Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB Stake Decreased by Barclays PLC

Barclays PLC lessened its holdings in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 11.9% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,774,261 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 373,454 shares during the quarter. Barclays PLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $166,761,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,963,343 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $8,052,537,000 after purchasing an additional 883,245 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 67,981,106 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $4,086,344,000 after purchasing an additional 1,296,991 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 15.9% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 48,586,299 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $3,077,942,000 after purchasing an additional 6,668,950 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 11.0% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 33,572,067 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,018,017,000 after purchasing an additional 3,314,851 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 21.3% during the fourth quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 21,325,482 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,281,875,000 after purchasing an additional 3,748,126 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on WMB shares. Citigroup boosted their target price on Williams Companies from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Friday, March 27th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Williams Companies from $78.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Truist Financial initiated coverage on Williams Companies in a report on Tuesday, March 24th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $84.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Williams Companies from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 10th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $82.40.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In other news, COO Larry C. Larsen sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.48, for a total value of $917,760.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 98,219 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,511,789.12. This represents a 10.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO John Dean Porter sold 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.37, for a total transaction of $3,768,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 196,567 shares in the company, valued at $14,815,254.79. This trade represents a 20.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 68,500 shares of company stock valued at $5,177,835. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Williams Companies Trading Down 0.9%

NYSE WMB opened at $71.43 on Tuesday. Williams Companies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $55.82 and a twelve month high of $80.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.83. The stock has a market cap of $87.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.33, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 0.58. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $73.42 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $69.00.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 4th. The pipeline company reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.10. Williams Companies had a net margin of 23.39% and a return on equity of 18.34%. The firm had revenue of $3.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.28 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.60 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.44 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 12th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 12th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is 92.11%.

About Williams Companies

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.