Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB Stake Increased by Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd.

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 9.5% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 184,123 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 16,027 shares during the quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $11,664,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in Williams Companies during the second quarter valued at approximately $765,164,000. BROOKFIELD Corp ON lifted its position in Williams Companies by 190.3% during the 2nd quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 12,028,186 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $755,490,000 after acquiring an additional 7,884,730 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 27.3% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 14,417,821 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $905,583,000 after purchasing an additional 3,089,390 shares during the last quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership boosted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 39.0% in the second quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 6,954,733 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $436,827,000 after acquiring an additional 1,950,485 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Williams Companies by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,075,340 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $8,358,462,000 after purchasing an additional 1,912,156 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WMB has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Citigroup raised their price target on Williams Companies from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 13th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $72.00 to $70.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Monday, January 12th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $70.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Three 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 given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $68.29.

Insider Buying and Selling at Williams Companies

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

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of WMB opened at $67.30 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $82.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.69, a P/E/G ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 0.64. Williams Companies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $51.58 and a twelve month high of $68.27. The company has a 50 day moving average of $61.15 and a 200-day moving average of $60.06. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.02). The company 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.43 EPS. Williams Companies has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.010-2.190 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. This is a boost from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.1%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 108.25%.

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.