Ameritas Advisory Services LLC Acquires 34,442 Shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Ameritas Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 838.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 38,550 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after purchasing an additional 34,442 shares during the quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $2,317,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Towne Trust Company N.A increased its holdings in Williams Companies by 60.2% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Financial Life Planners acquired a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the third quarter worth about $36,000. Turning Point Benefit Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the third quarter worth about $46,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 99.7% during the second quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 767 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $48,000 after buying an additional 383 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Accordant Advisory Group Inc raised its position in Williams Companies by 324.7% in the 4th quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc now owns 807 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $49,000 after buying an additional 617 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Williams Companies news, CFO John Dean Porter sold 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief financial officer owned 196,567 shares in the company, valued at $14,815,254.79. This represents a 20.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 10,107 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.91, for a total value of $757,115.37. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 17,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,290,699.30. The trade was a 36.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 103,369 shares of company stock worth $7,700,932 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on WMB. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Williams Companies from $81.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, April 20th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $80.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 13th. Truist Financial initiated coverage on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Tuesday, March 24th. They set a “buy” rating and a $84.00 target price for the company. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $78.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $80.47.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of WMB opened at $75.72 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $92.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.21, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.61. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1-year low of $55.82 and a 1-year high of $77.41. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $73.15 and its 200 day simple moving average is $66.51. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The pipeline company reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.10. Williams Companies had a net margin of 23.39% and a return on equity of 18.34%. The firm had revenue of $3.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.28 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.60 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. 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 2.37 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 29th. Investors of record on Friday, June 12th will be paid a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 12th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 92.11%.

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.