Advisortrust Partners LLC Takes $478,000 Position in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Advisortrust Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 7,953 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $478,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of WMB. Mill Creek Capital Advisors LLC lifted its position in Williams Companies by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Mill Creek Capital Advisors LLC now owns 6,000 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $361,000 after buying an additional 141 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 15,309 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $920,000 after acquiring an additional 148 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 12,646 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $760,000 after purchasing an additional 149 shares during the period. Great Diamond Partners LLC grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Great Diamond Partners LLC now owns 34,870 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,096,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the period. Finally, Betterment LLC increased its stake in Williams Companies by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Betterment LLC now owns 4,766 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $286,000 after purchasing an additional 154 shares in the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on WMB. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce increased their price target on Williams Companies from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperformer” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $80.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 13th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 10th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price target on Williams Companies from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $82.40.

Williams Companies Trading Up 0.1%

NYSE WMB opened at $73.16 on Friday. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $55.82 and a 1 year high of $80.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The company has a fifty day moving average of $73.37 and a 200 day moving average of $69.27. The company has a market capitalization of $89.37 billion, a PE ratio of 32.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.58.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The pipeline company reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.10. Williams Companies had a net margin of 23.39% and a return on equity of 18.34%. The business had revenue of $3.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.28 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.60 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 12th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 12th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is currently 92.11%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Williams Companies

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.35, for a total transaction of $152,700.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 287,159 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,924,589.65. This trade represents a 0.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO John Dean Porter sold 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.37, for a total value of $3,768,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 196,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,815,254.79. This represents a 20.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 68,500 shares of company stock valued at $5,177,835. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

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.