Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB Shares Bought by Hartford Funds Management Co LLC

Hartford Funds Management Co LLC boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 52.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 27,038 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,264 shares during the quarter. Hartford Funds Management Co LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $1,626,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,963,343 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $8,052,537,000 after buying an additional 883,245 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 15.9% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 48,586,299 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $3,077,942,000 after buying an additional 6,668,950 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 14,575,898 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $923,383,000 after buying an additional 158,077 shares during the period. BROOKFIELD Corp ON increased its stake in Williams Companies by 190.3% in the 2nd quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 12,028,186 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $755,490,000 after purchasing an additional 7,884,730 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi increased its stake in Williams Companies by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. Amundi now owns 9,600,016 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $610,369,000 after purchasing an additional 481,082 shares in the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WMB has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $82.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $78.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $81.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Truist Financial initiated coverage on Williams Companies in a research note on Tuesday, March 24th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $84.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $80.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 13th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $80.47.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Williams Companies stock opened at $77.55 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.83. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $73.29 and a two-hundred day moving average of $66.93. The company has a market capitalization of $94.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.01, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 0.61. Williams Companies, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $55.82 and a fifty-two week high of $78.31.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The pipeline company reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $3.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.28 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 18.34% and a net margin of 23.39%.Williams Companies’s revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.60 earnings per share. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 12th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 12th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 92.11%.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 27,000 shares of the firm’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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 293,159 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,377,154.28. This trade represents a 8.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Larry C. Larsen sold 12,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.48, for a total value of $917,760.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 98,219 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,511,789.12. The trade was a 10.89% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 117,869 shares of company stock valued at $8,814,067 in the last ninety days. 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.