Heartland Bank & Trust Co Makes New $903,000 Investment in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Heartland Bank & Trust Co purchased a new stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 12,153 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $903,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Main Street Group LTD acquired a new stake in Williams Companies in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Allied Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Williams Companies in the second quarter worth $28,000. Bayforest Capital Ltd bought a new position in shares of Williams Companies in the second quarter worth $28,000. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 59.4% during the first quarter. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC now owns 416 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 155 shares during the period. Finally, Motiv8 Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 13,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.87, for a total value of $973,310.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 268,159 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,077,064.33. The trade was a 4.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold 17,000 shares of company stock worth $1,262,930 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $78.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price objective on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $85.60.

Williams Companies Price Performance

NYSE:WMB opened at $70.71 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $73.38 and its 200 day moving average price is $73.13. The firm has a market cap of $86.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.17, a PEG ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 0.58. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52-week low of $56.08 and a 52-week high of $80.07. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50. Williams Companies had a net margin of 25.17% and a return on equity of 18.49%. The company had revenue of $3.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.83 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.46 EPS. Williams Companies’s revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.350-2.350 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Investors of record on Friday, September 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 11th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is currently 83.67%.

Key Stories Impacting Williams Companies

Here are the key news stories impacting Williams Companies this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley raised its price target for Williams Companies to $103, signaling substantial potential upside from recent trading levels and providing a constructive counterpoint to the earnings estimate cuts. Morgan Stanley Increases Williams Companies Price Target to $103
• Neutral Sentiment: The company’s latest reported quarter was solid: Williams earned $0.50 per share, matching consensus, while revenue of $3.05 billion exceeded expectations and increased 9.8% year over year. Its fee-based pipeline operations provide relatively stable cash flows.
• Negative Sentiment: US Capital Advisors lowered its EPS forecasts across several periods, including fourth-quarter 2026 EPS to $0.57 from $0.60, first-quarter 2027 EPS to $0.55 from $0.59, second-quarter 2027 EPS to $0.40 from $0.48, and third-quarter 2027 EPS to $0.50 from $0.55.
• Negative Sentiment: The firm also reduced its full-year 2027 EPS estimate to $2.07 from $2.28 and its 2028 forecast to $2.67 from $2.86. These revisions suggest analysts see weaker near- to medium-term earnings growth than previously expected and are likely the main reason the stock has decreased.

Williams Companies Company Profile

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.