Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. Buys 9,452 Shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 2.2% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 431,639 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 9,452 shares during the period. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $31,392,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Williams Companies during the 4th quarter valued at $747,749,000. BROOKFIELD Corp ON increased its holdings 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 worth $755,490,000 after purchasing an additional 7,884,730 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Williams Companies by 15.9% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 48,586,299 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $3,077,942,000 after purchasing an additional 6,668,950 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its position in Williams Companies by 21.3% in the fourth quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 21,325,482 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,281,875,000 after purchasing an additional 3,748,126 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 4,992.2% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 3,704,739 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $222,692,000 after purchasing an additional 3,631,986 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wolfe Research raised Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $80.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 13th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $81.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $82.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $83.50.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Williams Companies stock opened at $75.49 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $74.30 and its 200 day moving average is $70.76. Williams Companies, Inc. has a one year low of $55.82 and a one year high of $80.07. The firm has a market cap of $92.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.76.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The pipeline company reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.10. Williams Companies had a net margin of 23.39% and a return on equity of 18.34%. The business had revenue of $3.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.43 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 12th were given a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 12th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.8%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is 92.11%.

Insider Activity

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.16, for a total transaction of $148,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 283,159 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,999,071.44. This trade represents a 0.70% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO John Dean Porter sold 50,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.37, for a total value of $3,768,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 196,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,815,254.79. This trade represents a 20.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 68,500 shares of company stock worth $5,182,655 over the last ninety days. Corporate 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.