Strs Ohio Cuts Stock Holdings in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Strs Ohio lowered its stake in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 3.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 275,987 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 11,114 shares during the period. Strs Ohio’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $16,590,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Towne Trust Company N.A raised its stake in Williams Companies by 60.2% during the fourth quarter. Towne Trust Company N.A now owns 431 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 162 shares during the period. Salomon & Ludwin LLC purchased a new position in Williams Companies during the third quarter worth approximately $35,000. Financial Life Planners purchased a new position in Williams Companies during the third quarter worth approximately $36,000. OLD Second National Bank of Aurora raised its stake in Williams Companies by 71.2% during the third quarter. OLD Second National Bank of Aurora now owns 630 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 262 shares during the period. Finally, Turning Point Benefit Group Inc. purchased a new position in Williams Companies during the third quarter worth approximately $46,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on WMB shares. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 10th. Truist Financial began coverage on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Tuesday, March 24th. They set a “buy” rating and a $84.00 price target on the stock. Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $83.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $78.60.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Williams Companies stock opened at $75.69 on Monday. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12-month low of $55.82 and a 12-month high of $76.87. The company has a market capitalization of $92.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83, a current ratio of 0.53 and a quick ratio of 0.48. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $73.14 and its 200 day moving average price is $65.91.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 10th. The pipeline company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.57 by ($0.02). Williams Companies had a return on equity of 17.32% and a net margin of 21.90%.The firm had revenue of $3.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.10 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.47 EPS. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 12th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 98.13%.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 27,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.92, for a total transaction of $1,968,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 293,159 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,377,154.28. This trade represents a 8.43% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 10,107 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.91, for a total transaction of $757,115.37. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 17,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,290,699.30. This represents a 36.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 51,369 shares of company stock valued at $3,779,732 in the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.