Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP Makes New $500.31 Million Investment in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP acquired a new position in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 6,729,960 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $500,305,000. Williams Companies accounts for approximately 9.8% of Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its biggest position.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Williams Companies in the fourth quarter valued at $747,749,000. BROOKFIELD Corp ON boosted its stake in Williams Companies by 190.3% during the second quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 12,028,186 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $755,490,000 after buying an additional 7,884,730 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA acquired a new stake in Williams Companies during the second quarter worth $354,184,000. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board bought a new stake in Williams Companies in the 2nd quarter valued at $329,094,000. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its holdings in Williams Companies by 21.3% in the 4th quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 21,325,482 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,281,875,000 after buying an additional 3,748,126 shares during the period. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Williams Companies Trading Down 1.9%

Shares of Williams Companies stock opened at $71.86 on Friday. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12-month low of $56.08 and a 12-month high of $80.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $87.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $73.40 and a 200 day simple moving average of $73.15. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50. The firm had revenue of $3.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.83 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 25.17% and a return on equity of 18.49%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.46 earnings per share. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.350-2.350 EPS. Research analysts expect that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 11th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 11th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is presently 83.67%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on WMB. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $81.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce increased their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “outperformer” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $83.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $88.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $85.60.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 13,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.87, for a total transaction of $973,310.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 268,159 shares in the company, valued at $20,077,064.33. This represents a 4.62% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 17,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,262,930. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Williams Companies

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.