Capital Investment Advisors LLC Acquires 8,107 Shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Capital Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 3.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 258,552 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,107 shares during the quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $15,542,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in WMB. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Williams Companies by 15.9% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 48,586,299 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $3,077,942,000 after buying an additional 6,668,950 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 14,575,898 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $923,383,000 after acquiring an additional 158,077 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the 2nd quarter valued at about $765,164,000. BROOKFIELD Corp ON raised its position 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 valued at $755,490,000 after acquiring an additional 7,884,730 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi boosted its stake in Williams Companies by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. Amundi now owns 9,600,016 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $610,369,000 after acquiring an additional 481,082 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Williams Companies

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 27,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.92, for a total value of $1,968,840.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 293,159 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,377,154.28. The trade was a 8.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, 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 directly owned 31,766 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,323,682.90. This trade represents a 8.36% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 51,369 shares of company stock valued at $3,769,012 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Price Performance

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

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its quarterly 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 21.90% and a return on equity of 17.32%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.47 earnings per share. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. Research analysts predict that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is an increase from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. 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%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is currently 98.13%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on WMB. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Scotiabank raised shares of Williams Companies from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $84.00 in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Truist Financial initiated coverage on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Tuesday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $84.00 price target for the company. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $83.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $77.00.

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.