Los Angeles Capital Management LLC Cuts Position in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Los Angeles Capital Management LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 57.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 33,495 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 45,042 shares during the quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $2,104,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Williams Companies by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 131,163,184 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $7,838,312,000 after buying an additional 807,019 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Williams Companies by 6.0% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 29,624,104 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,770,336,000 after acquiring an additional 1,680,477 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG raised its position in Williams Companies by 5.6% during the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 17,520,491 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,047,025,000 after purchasing an additional 932,998 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 15,291,842 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $913,840,000 after purchasing an additional 54,902 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 45.0% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 11,339,078 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $677,623,000 after purchasing an additional 3,519,370 shares during the period. 86.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Williams Companies stock opened at $60.57 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73, a current ratio of 0.54 and a quick ratio of 0.48. The stock has a market cap of $73.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.63. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $60.50 and a two-hundred day moving average of $59.43. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $51.58 and a 1 year high of $65.55.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $2.92 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.87 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 21.63% and a return on equity of 16.23%. The business’s revenue was up 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.43 EPS. Williams Companies has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.010-2.190 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 12th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 12th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is currently 103.09%.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.62, for a total transaction of $115,240.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 311,645 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,956,984.90. This trade represents a 0.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on WMB. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Williams Companies from $70.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Cibc World Mkts raised shares of Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 15th. CIBC raised shares of Williams Companies from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and set a $64.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, August 15th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Friday, October 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $72.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $67.86.

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.