Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co Acquires 19,700 Shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co increased its stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 8.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 248,500 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 19,700 shares during the quarter. Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $15,742,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Williams Companies in the second quarter valued at about $765,164,000. BROOKFIELD Corp ON raised its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 190.3% in the 2nd quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 12,028,186 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $755,490,000 after purchasing an additional 7,884,730 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Williams Companies by 27.3% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 14,417,821 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $905,583,000 after purchasing an additional 3,089,390 shares during the last quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 39.0% during the second quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 6,954,733 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $436,827,000 after purchasing an additional 1,950,485 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Williams Companies by 1.5% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,075,340 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $8,358,462,000 after buying an additional 1,912,156 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of Williams Companies stock opened at $71.17 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $62.50 and its 200-day moving average price is $60.70. The company has a current ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12-month low of $51.58 and a 12-month high of $72.28. The company has a market cap of $86.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.26, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.65.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 10th. The pipeline company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.47 EPS. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 30th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This is a positive change from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is 93.46%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WMB has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Mizuho raised Williams Companies to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $70.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $71.67.

Insider Transactions at Williams Companies

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.39, for a total transaction of $132,780.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 293,545 shares in the company, valued at $19,488,452.55. The trade was a 0.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

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.