Freemont Management S.A. Lowers Position in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Freemont Management S.A. decreased its stake in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 88.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 14,000 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 105,100 shares during the period. Freemont Management S.A.’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $887,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in WMB. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,075,340 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $8,358,462,000 after buying an additional 1,912,156 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Williams Companies by 27.3% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 14,417,821 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $905,583,000 after acquiring an additional 3,089,390 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Williams Companies in the 2nd quarter worth about $765,164,000. BROOKFIELD Corp ON raised its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 190.3% in the 2nd quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 12,028,186 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $755,490,000 after purchasing an additional 7,884,730 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 9.9% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 10,056,234 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $631,632,000 after purchasing an additional 903,457 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Williams Companies

Here are the key news stories impacting Williams Companies this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Multiple broker upgrades and higher price targets — Citi raised its target to $81 with a “buy” rating, Wells Fargo lifted its target to $80 (“overweight”), and RBC moved to $78 (“outperform”), signaling analyst conviction and upside vs. the current price. Analyst Price Target Rises
• Positive Sentiment: Company raised FY2026 guidance and sees higher 2026 profit driven by pipeline and offshore projects; management highlighted projects that should drive earnings growth and cash flow. Williams Sees Higher 2026 Profit
• Positive Sentiment: Q4 / FY25 results were mixed but supportive: adjusted EPS missed by $0.02 while revenue beat estimates and the company reported record results; management’s tone and the revenue beat appear to have calmed investor concerns. Earnings and Revenue Beat Context
• Positive Sentiment: Local/regional coverage highlights demand tailwinds from data-center growth in Tulsa and additional industrial/power demand that underpin midstream volume growth. Tulsa Data-Center Demand
• Neutral Sentiment: Longer-term performance pieces note WMB’s strong multi-year returns, useful for investor context but less likely to move the stock near-term. 10-Year Return Analysis
• Neutral Sentiment: Sector commentary and S&P 500 energy insights provide broader market context for WMB but are informational rather than company-specific catalysts. Energy Sector Insights
• Negative Sentiment: Valuation and technical caution: analysts and MarketBeat note the stock is trading near/above consensus targets and technical indicators (RSI) look stretched, which raises the risk that the share price needs time to digest gains; the tiny EPS miss also tempers the beat. Technical / Valuation Caution

Williams Companies Trading Up 0.1%

WMB opened at $71.17 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $86.92 billion, a PE ratio of 33.26, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83, a current ratio of 0.53 and a quick ratio of 0.36. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12-month low of $51.58 and a 12-month high of $72.28. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $62.50 and its 200 day moving average price is $60.70.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 10th. The pipeline company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by ($0.02). Williams Companies had a net margin of 21.90% and a return on equity of 17.32%. The company had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.10 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.47 EPS. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The company 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. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This is a positive change from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is 93.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Williams Companies

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.39, for a total transaction of $132,780.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 293,545 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,488,452.55. This represents a 0.68% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on WMB shares. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $70.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Zacks Research raised shares of Williams Companies from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $71.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Tudor Pickering upgraded Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 1st. Finally, Mizuho raised Williams Companies to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $71.21.

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.