Ninety One UK Ltd Boosts Position in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Ninety One UK Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 51.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 768,819 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 259,553 shares during the period. Ninety One UK Ltd’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $46,214,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Towne Trust Company N.A increased its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 60.2% during the fourth quarter. Towne Trust Company N.A now owns 431 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 162 shares during the period. LRI Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 8.8% during the third quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 2,169 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $137,000 after buying an additional 176 shares during the period. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Williams Companies by 23.3% in the fourth quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 986 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $59,000 after purchasing an additional 186 shares during the period. Patten & Patten Inc. TN grew its stake in Williams Companies by 1.7% in the third quarter. Patten & Patten Inc. TN now owns 11,087 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $702,000 after purchasing an additional 187 shares during the period. Finally, Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in Williams Companies by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC now owns 19,006 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,142,000 after purchasing an additional 193 shares during the period. 86.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Wall Street Zen raised Williams Companies from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, April 5th. Scotiabank upped their price target on Williams Companies from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 1st. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Williams Companies from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Zacks Research raised Williams Companies from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Williams Companies from $83.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $77.47.

Williams Companies Trading Up 0.4%

Williams Companies stock opened at $71.17 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $72.93 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $65.32. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12 month low of $55.56 and a 12 month high of $76.87. The company has a market capitalization of $86.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 0.63.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 10th. The pipeline company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.57 by ($0.02). Williams Companies had a return on equity of 17.32% and a net margin of 21.90%.The company had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.47 earnings per share. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th were issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 13th. This is an increase from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.0%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is currently 98.13%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 27,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.92, for a total transaction of $1,968,840.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 293,159 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,377,154.28. This represents a 8.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 10,107 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.91, for a total value of $757,115.37. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 17,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,290,699.30. The trade was a 36.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 53,369 shares of company stock valued at $3,912,512. Company insiders own 0.47% 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.