Hennessy Advisors Inc. Has $32.81 Million Stock Holdings in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Hennessy Advisors Inc. reduced its position in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 441,321 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 8,961 shares during the period. Williams Companies comprises 1.0% of Hennessy Advisors Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest holding. Hennessy Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $32,808,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in WMB. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 40.9% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 13,680 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $740,000 after purchasing an additional 3,969 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Williams Companies by 5.5% during the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 4,635 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $291,000 after buying an additional 242 shares during the period. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina lifted its holdings in Williams Companies by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 568,928 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $35,734,000 after buying an additional 11,926 shares during the period. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC grew its position in shares of Williams Companies by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC now owns 10,248 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $644,000 after buying an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 160.1% in the second quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 165,035 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $10,366,000 after buying an additional 101,574 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 13,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.87, for a total transaction of $973,310.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 268,159 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,077,064.33. This trade represents a 4.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders have sold a total of 17,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,262,930 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Shares of WMB opened at $73.75 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $90.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.58. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $56.08 and a 52 week high of $80.07. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $73.46 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $73.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.48.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 18.49% and a net margin of 25.17%.The company had revenue of $3.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.83 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.46 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.350-2.350 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 11th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is currently 83.67%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on WMB shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $88.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $99.00 to $103.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 18th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Williams Companies from $89.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $85.60.

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.