Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB Shares Sold by QRG Capital Management Inc.

QRG Capital Management Inc. decreased its holdings in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 42.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 87,442 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 63,633 shares during the period. QRG Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $5,539,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Evergreen Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Williams Companies by 7.1% during the 3rd quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 23,489 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,488,000 after purchasing an additional 1,560 shares in the last quarter. Leavell Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 7.4% in the 3rd quarter. Leavell Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,225 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $331,000 after buying an additional 361 shares during the period. Vectors Research Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Vectors Research Management LLC now owns 66,680 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $4,224,000 after buying an additional 587 shares during the period. Richardson Financial Services Inc. grew its position in shares of Williams Companies by 3.4% during the third quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 6,488 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $411,000 after buying an additional 211 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gibraltar Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 0.9% during the third quarter. Gibraltar Capital Management Inc. now owns 49,439 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $3,132,000 after buying an additional 420 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.90, for a total transaction of $123,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 297,545 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,418,035.50. This trade represents a 0.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

NYSE WMB opened at $61.56 on Monday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $60.20 and a two-hundred day moving average of $59.64. The company has a market capitalization of $75.18 billion, a PE ratio of 31.73, a P/E/G ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.64. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $51.58 and a 1 year high of $65.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73, a current ratio of 0.42 and a quick ratio of 0.36.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $2.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.87 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 16.74% and a net margin of 20.61%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.43 EPS. Williams Companies has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.010-2.190 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 12th were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 12th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.2%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is currently 103.09%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on WMB. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $70.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Williams Companies from $59.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Williams Companies from $70.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Finally, Zacks Research cut Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 6th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $68.29.

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.