&PARTNERS Boosts Position in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

&PARTNERS boosted its position in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 12.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 617,824 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after acquiring an additional 67,255 shares during the quarter. &PARTNERS’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $37,155,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of WMB. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Williams Companies during the fourth quarter valued at $747,749,000. BROOKFIELD Corp ON increased its position in Williams Companies by 190.3% during the second 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 last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Williams Companies by 15.9% during 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 acquiring an additional 6,668,950 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its position in Williams Companies by 21.3% during the fourth quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 21,325,482 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,281,875,000 after acquiring an additional 3,748,126 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC increased its position in Williams Companies by 4,992.2% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 3,704,739 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $222,692,000 after acquiring an additional 3,631,986 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on WMB shares. TD Cowen upped their price objective on Williams Companies from $81.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Williams Companies from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Wolfe Research upgraded Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Williams Companies from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $82.40.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

NYSE:WMB opened at $71.36 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $73.41 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $69.08. 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 $87.17 billion, a PE ratio of 31.30, a P/E/G ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 0.58.

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

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

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 issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 12th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is currently 92.11%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Glen G. Jasek sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the senior vice president 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 196,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,815,254.79. This trade represents a 20.28% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 68,500 shares of company stock worth $5,177,835. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

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.