Alps Advisors Inc. Acquires 23,412 Shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Alps Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 5.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 480,955 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 23,412 shares during the quarter. Alps Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $28,910,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH bought a new position in Williams Companies in the 4th quarter valued at about $4,627,000. Gabelli Funds LLC lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 261,000 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $15,689,000 after buying an additional 17,900 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 21.0% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,105,570 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $125,839,000 after buying an additional 365,546 shares in the last quarter. Stephens Inc. AR lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 8.9% during the 4th quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 164,900 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $9,912,000 after buying an additional 13,438 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 56.3% during the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 57,550 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $3,459,000 after buying an additional 20,740 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Trading Down 0.8%

Shares of Williams Companies stock opened at $71.66 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $87.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 0.58. 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 stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $73.43 and its 200 day simple moving average is $68.83. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52-week low of $55.82 and a 52-week high of $80.07.

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

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Williams Companies

In other Williams Companies news, CFO John Dean Porter sold 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.37, for a total transaction 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. The trade was a 20.28% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, COO Larry C. Larsen sold 12,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.48, for a total value of $917,760.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 98,219 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,511,789.12. This trade represents a 10.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 68,500 shares of company stock worth $5,177,835. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on WMB. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 10th. Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “outperformer” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Four equities research 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $82.40.

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.