Swiss National Bank Boosts Stock Position in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Swiss National Bank grew its holdings in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 7.1% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 3,584,000 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after acquiring an additional 237,500 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $260,844,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in WMB. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH bought a new position in Williams Companies in the fourth quarter worth approximately $4,627,000. Gabelli Funds LLC raised its position in Williams Companies by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 261,000 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $15,689,000 after purchasing an additional 17,900 shares in the last quarter. SIR Capital Management L.P. raised its position in Williams Companies by 40.0% during the 4th quarter. SIR Capital Management L.P. now owns 525,232 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $31,572,000 after purchasing an additional 150,032 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 21.0% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,105,570 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $125,839,000 after buying an additional 365,546 shares during the period. Finally, Stephens Inc. AR lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 8.9% in the 4th quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 164,900 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $9,912,000 after buying an additional 13,438 shares during the period. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce raised their price target on Williams Companies from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperformer” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Truist Financial assumed coverage on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Tuesday, March 24th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $84.00 price objective for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 target price on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Tuesday. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $73.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Williams Companies currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $83.56.

Insider Transactions at Williams Companies

In other Williams Companies news, 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 transaction of $195,375.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 54,101 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,227,993.15. This trade represents a 4.42% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO John Dean Porter sold 50,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owned 196,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,815,254.79. The trade was a 20.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 68,500 shares of company stock worth $5,182,655. 0.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Shares of WMB opened at $73.34 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $74.37 and a 200-day moving average price of $71.32. 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, Inc. has a 12 month low of $55.82 and a 12 month high of $80.07. The firm has a market cap of $89.60 billion, a PE ratio of 32.17, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.57.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 4th. The pipeline company reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $3.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.28 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 23.39% and a return on equity of 18.34%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.60 earnings per share. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 29th. Investors of record on Friday, June 12th were issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 12th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. Williams Companies’s payout ratio 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.