48,532 Shares in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB Purchased by Great Lakes Advisors LLC

Great Lakes Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 48,532 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,608,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WMB. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 40.9% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 13,680 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $740,000 after purchasing an additional 3,969 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 5.5% in the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 4,635 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $291,000 after buying an additional 242 shares during the last quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 568,928 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $35,734,000 after purchasing an additional 11,926 shares during the period. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC increased its position in shares of Williams Companies by 3.0% during the 2nd quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC now owns 10,248 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $644,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 160.1% in the second quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 165,035 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $10,366,000 after buying an additional 101,574 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 13,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.87, for a total transaction of $973,310.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 268,159 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,077,064.33. This represents a 4.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold a total of 17,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,262,930 over the last quarter. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $81.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Truist Financial lifted their target price on Williams Companies from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 12th. Wall Street Zen lowered Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, August 8th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $89.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $85.60.

Williams Companies Price Performance

NYSE:WMB opened at $71.86 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $73.40 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $73.15. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $56.08 and a 52 week high of $80.07. The stock has a market cap of $87.90 billion, a PE ratio of 28.63, a P/E/G ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.50. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 18.49% and a net margin of 25.17%.The firm had revenue of $3.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.83 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.46 earnings per share. The firm’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, analysts forecast that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.48 EPS 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 11th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 11th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.9%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 83.67%.

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.