Rakuten Investment Management Inc. Sells 40,314 Shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 20.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 160,649 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 40,314 shares during the period. Rakuten Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $9,607,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of WMB. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 40.9% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 13,680 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $740,000 after acquiring an additional 3,969 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 5.5% during the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 4,635 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $291,000 after acquiring an additional 242 shares during the last quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 2.1% during the second quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 568,928 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $35,734,000 after acquiring an additional 11,926 shares during the last quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 3.0% during the second quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC now owns 10,248 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $644,000 after acquiring an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 160.1% during the second quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 165,035 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $10,366,000 after acquiring an additional 101,574 shares during the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Williams Companies

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Glen G. Jasek sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.15, for a total transaction of $195,375.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 54,101 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,227,993.15. This trade represents a 4.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO John Dean Porter sold 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.37, for a total transaction of $3,768,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 196,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,815,254.79. This represents a 20.28% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 68,500 shares of company stock worth $5,177,835 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on WMB shares. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Williams Companies from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, April 5th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $78.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $80.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 13th. Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $82.40.

Williams Companies Price Performance

WMB stock opened at $71.36 on Wednesday. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $55.82 and a 1 year high of $80.07. The company has a market cap of $87.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.30, a PEG ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 0.58. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $73.41 and a 200 day moving average of $69.08. 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 quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The pipeline company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $3.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.28 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.60 earnings per share. Williams Companies’s revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.44 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 12th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 92.11%.

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.