Castle Hook Partners LP Buys Shares of 1,033,774 Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Castle Hook Partners LP bought a new stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 1,033,774 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $62,140,000. Castle Hook Partners LP owned approximately 0.08% of Williams Companies as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Towne Trust Company N.A increased its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 60.2% in the 4th quarter. Towne Trust Company N.A now owns 431 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 162 shares during the last quarter. Motiv8 Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Clearstead Trust LLC increased its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 62.2% in the 4th quarter. Clearstead Trust LLC now owns 485 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 186 shares during the last quarter. Kemnay Advisory Services Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, WHI TRUST Co LLC bought a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WMB has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Williams Companies from $80.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 13th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Williams Companies from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 10th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Williams Companies from $89.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Finally, Truist Financial started coverage on Williams Companies in a research note on Tuesday, March 24th. They set a “buy” rating and a $84.00 price objective for the company. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $82.40.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of NYSE WMB opened at $71.26 on Thursday. Williams Companies, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $55.82 and a fifty-two week high of $80.07. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $73.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $69.16. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99. The stock has a market cap of $87.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.26, a P/E/G ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 0.58.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 4th. The pipeline company reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.10. Williams Companies had a net margin of 23.39% and a return on equity of 18.34%. The business 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 business earned $0.60 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.44 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 29th. Investors of record on Friday, June 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 12th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.9%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 92.11%.

Insider Transactions at Williams Companies

In other news, 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 sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 196,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,815,254.79. This represents a 20.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Glen G. Jasek sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.15, for a total value of $195,375.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 54,101 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,227,993.15. This represents a 4.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 68,500 shares of company stock worth $5,177,835. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

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.