Royal Bank of Canada Reduces Stock Holdings in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Royal Bank of Canada reduced its stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 14.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 13,431,853 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 2,209,977 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $807,389,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Towne Trust Company N.A increased its stake in Williams Companies by 60.2% in the fourth quarter. Towne Trust Company N.A now owns 431 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 162 shares during the last quarter. Motiv8 Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. Clearstead Trust LLC grew its position in shares of Williams Companies by 62.2% during the fourth quarter. Clearstead Trust LLC now owns 485 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 186 shares during the last quarter. WHI TRUST Co LLC purchased a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. Finally, First Command Advisory Services Inc. grew its position in shares of Williams Companies by 216.8% during the fourth quarter. First Command Advisory Services Inc. now owns 491 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 336 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WMB has been the topic of a number of research reports. Truist Financial initiated coverage on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Tuesday, March 24th. They set a “buy” rating and a $84.00 target price on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 10th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “outperformer” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $82.40.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO John Dean Porter sold 50,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.37, for a total value of $3,768,500.00. Following 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Glen G. Jasek sold 2,500 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.15, for a total transaction of $195,375.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 54,101 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,227,993.15. This trade represents a 4.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 68,500 shares of company stock valued at $5,177,835. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

NYSE:WMB opened at $71.36 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $73.41 and its 200 day moving average price is $69.08. 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 1.99, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The firm has a market cap of $87.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 0.58.

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, 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 firm had revenue of $3.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.28 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. Williams Companies’s quarterly revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.44 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

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

Williams Companies 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.