Traders Buy High Volume of Put Options on Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB)

Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Investors purchased 16,202 put options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 43% compared to the average daily volume of 11,327 put options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on WMB shares. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Williams Companies from $78.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $89.00 to $91.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Williams Companies from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, April 5th. Finally, 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 note on Friday, March 13th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Williams Companies currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $82.53.

Williams Companies Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of WMB stock opened at $73.99 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $73.97 and its 200 day moving average price is $70.03. Williams Companies has a 1-year low of $55.82 and a 1-year high of $80.07. The company has a market cap of $90.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.76.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released 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 return on equity of 18.34% and a net margin of 23.39%.The company had revenue of $3.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.28 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.60 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue 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 expect that Williams Companies will post 2.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 12th were given 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 was Friday, June 12th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is currently 92.11%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other 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 transaction of $3,768,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 196,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, 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 owned 54,101 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,227,993.15. The trade was a 4.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 66,500 shares of company stock worth $5,034,335 over the last three months. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Towne Trust Company N.A grew its stake 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 valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 162 shares during the last quarter. Main Street Group LTD acquired a new stake in shares of Williams Companies during the first quarter worth about $26,000. Motiv8 Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Williams Companies in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Clearstead Trust LLC boosted its position in Williams Companies by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. Clearstead Trust LLC now owns 485 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 186 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kemnay Advisory Services Inc. acquired a new position in Williams Companies in the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

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.