Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH Acquires New Holdings in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH bought a new stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 76,980 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,627,000.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in WMB. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 3.1% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,540,556 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $287,644,000 after purchasing an additional 134,777 shares during the last quarter. World Investment Advisors lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 185.6% during the 3rd quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 43,069 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,728,000 after purchasing an additional 27,987 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 9.5% in the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 184,123 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $11,664,000 after purchasing an additional 16,027 shares in the last quarter. Compass Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 75.9% in the 3rd quarter. Compass Wealth Management LLC now owns 125,290 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $7,937,000 after purchasing an additional 54,057 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp grew its stake in Williams Companies by 3,344.8% during the 3rd quarter. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp now owns 17,465 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,106,000 after buying an additional 16,958 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently issued reports on WMB shares. Truist Financial started coverage on Williams Companies in a research report on Tuesday. They set a “buy” rating and a $84.00 target price on the stock. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Scotiabank upgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $84.00 in a report on Friday, February 13th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $70.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $77.00.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Shares of WMB stock opened at $73.57 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $70.92 and a 200 day moving average of $64.10. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $51.58 and a 1 year high of $76.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83, a current ratio of 0.53 and a quick ratio of 0.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $89.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.63.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $3.20 billion for 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 last year, the firm earned $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 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.9%. 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 98.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Williams Companies

In related news, SVP Payvand Fazel sold 2,898 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.15, for a total transaction of $211,988.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 31,766 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,323,682.90. This trade represents a 8.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Todd J. Rinke sold 7,364 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.39, for a total transaction of $547,807.96. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 26,055 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,938,231.45. This represents a 22.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 51,369 shares of company stock valued at $3,769,012. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.