Bessemer Group Inc. Grows Stock Position in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Bessemer Group Inc. increased its position in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 2,351.5% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,735,669 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 1,664,869 shares during the quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. owned 0.14% of Williams Companies worth $126,323,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WMB. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,963,343 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $8,052,537,000 after purchasing an additional 883,245 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its position in Williams Companies by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 67,981,106 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $4,086,344,000 after purchasing an additional 1,296,991 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in Williams Companies by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 46,053,873 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,768,298,000 after buying an additional 2,100,164 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in Williams Companies by 11.0% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 33,572,067 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $2,018,017,000 after buying an additional 3,314,851 shares during the period. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its position in shares of Williams Companies by 21.3% in the 4th quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 21,325,482 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,281,875,000 after buying an additional 3,748,126 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WMB has been the subject of several research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price objective on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $87.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $81.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Truist Financial initiated coverage on Williams Companies in a research report on Tuesday, March 24th. They set a “buy” rating and a $84.00 price objective on the stock. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $83.56.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE WMB opened at $73.34 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $74.37 and its 200-day moving average price is $71.32. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52-week low of $55.82 and a 52-week high of $80.07. The company has a market cap of $89.60 billion, a PE ratio of 32.17, a PEG ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.10. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 18.34% and a net margin of 23.39%.The company had revenue of $3.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.28 billion. Williams Companies’s revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior 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, analysts anticipate that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.43 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In other news, CFO John Dean Porter sold 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owned 196,567 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,815,254.79. This represents a 20.28% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Glen G. Jasek sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were 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. The trade was a 4.42% 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 worth $5,182,655 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

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.