Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Buys 143,506 Shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 73.1% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 339,953 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after acquiring an additional 143,506 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ holdings in Williams Companies were worth $21,348,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Williams Companies during the 2nd quarter valued at about $765,164,000. BROOKFIELD Corp ON lifted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 190.3% in 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. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 27.3% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 14,417,821 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $905,583,000 after buying an additional 3,089,390 shares during the last quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 34.0% during the first quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 11,287,921 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $674,566,000 after buying an additional 2,861,988 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Artisan Partners Limited Partnership increased its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 1,950,485 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Williams Companies

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.53, for a total transaction of $242,120.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 302,645 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,319,101.85. The trade was a 1.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.44% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Monday. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Williams Companies from $70.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. UBS Group increased their price objective on Williams Companies from $74.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 30th. Barclays boosted their target price on Williams Companies from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $59.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $68.21.

Williams Companies Stock Down 1.8%

Williams Companies stock opened at $58.43 on Wednesday. Williams Companies, Inc. has a one year low of $51.58 and a one year high of $65.55. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $60.32 and a 200 day moving average of $59.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.42. The stock has a market cap of $71.35 billion, a PE ratio of 30.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 0.62.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($0.02). Williams Companies had a net margin of 20.61% and a return on equity of 16.74%. The firm had revenue of $2.92 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.87 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.43 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Williams Companies has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.010-2.190 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 12th will be given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 12th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.4%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 103.09%.

Williams Companies Profile

The Williams Companies, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an energy infrastructure company primarily in the United States. It operates through Transmission & Gulf of Mexico, Northeast G&P, West, and Gas & NGL Marketing Services segments. The Transmission & Gulf of Mexico segment comprises natural gas pipelines; Transco, Northwest pipeline, MountainWest, and related natural gas storage facilities; and natural gas gathering and processing, and crude oil production handling and transportation assets in the Gulf Coast region.