16,577 Shares in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB Bought by AXQ Capital LP

AXQ Capital LP bought a new stake in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 16,577 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,050,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of WMB. LRI Investments LLC raised its position in shares of Williams Companies by 8.8% during the third quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 2,169 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $137,000 after buying an additional 176 shares during the last quarter. Patten & Patten Inc. TN raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Patten & Patten Inc. TN now owns 11,087 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $702,000 after acquiring an additional 187 shares in the last quarter. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC now owns 10,420 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $660,000 after acquiring an additional 199 shares during the period. Bank of Jackson Hole Trust lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 42.5% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of Jackson Hole Trust now owns 671 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the period. Finally, Tradewinds Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 9.0% during the 3rd quarter. Tradewinds Capital Management LLC now owns 2,425 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $154,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Tudor Pickering upgraded Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 1st. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective 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. TD Cowen raised their price objective 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. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $78.00 to $89.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $75.36.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.39, for a total value of $132,780.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 293,545 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,488,452.55. The trade was a 0.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Stock Down 0.1%

NYSE WMB opened at $72.94 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $64.10 and its 200 day simple moving average is $61.37. Williams Companies, Inc. has a one year low of $51.58 and a one year high of $73.87. The firm has a market cap of $89.08 billion, a PE ratio of 34.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.30 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 0.48.

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

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.9%. This is an increase from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is currently 93.46%.

About Williams Companies

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.