Ascentis Independent Advisors Purchases 11,539 Shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Ascentis Independent Advisors lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 83.7% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 25,331 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 11,539 shares during the period. Ascentis Independent Advisors’ holdings in Williams Companies were worth $1,844,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In other Williams Companies news, COO Larry C. Larsen sold 12,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.48, for a total value of $917,760.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 98,219 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,511,789.12. This trade represents a 10.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO John Dean Porter sold 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.37, for a total value of $3,768,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 196,567 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,815,254.79. This trade represents a 20.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 68,500 shares of company stock valued at $5,182,655 in the last quarter. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of WMB opened at $72.78 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $74.10 and a 200 day simple moving average of $70.30. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52-week low of $55.82 and a 52-week high of $80.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $88.91 billion, a PE ratio of 31.92, a P/E/G ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 0.57.

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

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 29th. Investors of record on Friday, June 12th were paid a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 12th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.9%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is presently 92.11%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Wall Street Zen downgraded Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce boosted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperformer” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $89.00 to $91.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $80.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 13th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $82.94.

Williams Companies 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.