Arax Advisory Partners Sells 80,265 Shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Arax Advisory Partners cut its holdings in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 76.9% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 24,092 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 80,265 shares during the quarter. Arax Advisory Partners’ holdings in Williams Companies were worth $1,448,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH bought a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the fourth quarter worth about $4,627,000. Gabelli Funds LLC boosted its position in Williams Companies by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 261,000 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $15,689,000 after purchasing an additional 17,900 shares during the last quarter. Stephens Inc. AR boosted its position in Williams Companies by 8.9% during the fourth quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 164,900 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $9,912,000 after purchasing an additional 13,438 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in Williams Companies by 21.0% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,105,570 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $125,839,000 after purchasing an additional 365,546 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC boosted its position in Williams Companies by 56.3% during the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 57,550 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $3,459,000 after purchasing an additional 20,740 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Williams Companies from $80.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 13th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Williams Companies from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 10th. Truist Financial assumed coverage on Williams Companies in a research report on Tuesday, March 24th. They set a “buy” rating and a $84.00 price target for the company. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $82.40.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Glen G. Jasek sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.15, for a total value of $195,375.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 54,101 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,227,993.15. This represents a 4.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Larry C. Larsen sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owned 98,219 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,511,789.12. This represents a 10.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 68,500 shares of company stock valued at $5,177,835 over the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Williams Companies Trading Down 0.9%

Shares of WMB opened at $71.43 on Tuesday. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52-week low of $55.82 and a 52-week high of $80.07. The business’s fifty day moving average is $73.42 and its 200-day moving average is $69.00. 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 cap of $87.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.33, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 0.58.

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

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

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

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.