Principal Financial Group Inc. Boosts Stock Position in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 11.6% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,000,137 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after acquiring an additional 207,426 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $148,690,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. SmartHarvest Portfolios LLC increased its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 7.0% in the second quarter. SmartHarvest Portfolios LLC now owns 6,390 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $475,000 after purchasing an additional 420 shares during the period. Choreo LLC raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 4.8% during the second quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 29,792 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,215,000 after purchasing an additional 1,356 shares during the last quarter. Symphony Financial Ltd. Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 87.0% during the second quarter. Symphony Financial Ltd. Co. now owns 6,953 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $519,000 after purchasing an additional 3,235 shares during the period. Acumen Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 147.3% during the second quarter. Acumen Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 28,138 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,092,000 after purchasing an additional 16,760 shares during the period. Finally, Eagle Bay Advisors LLC grew its position in Williams Companies by 5.2% in the 2nd quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 2,986 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $222,000 after buying an additional 148 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on WMB shares. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price objective on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $83.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 8th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $78.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $88.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $85.33.

Williams Companies Trading Up 2.7%

NYSE:WMB opened at $75.04 on Friday. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $55.82 and a 1 year high of $80.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.48. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $73.27 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $72.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $91.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.90, a PEG ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 0.58.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.50. Williams Companies had a net margin of 25.17% and a return on equity of 18.49%. The company had revenue of $3.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.83 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.46 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.350-2.350 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Investors of record on Friday, September 11th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 11th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.8%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 83.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.65, for a total transaction of $141,300.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 281,159 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,863,883.35. The trade was a 0.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

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.