M.D. Sass LLC Reduces Position in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

M.D. Sass LLC reduced its stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 7.4% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,087,582 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 86,338 shares during the period. Williams Companies comprises approximately 5.3% of M.D. Sass LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd largest position. M.D. Sass LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $80,851,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in Williams Companies in the 4th quarter worth about $747,749,000. BROOKFIELD Corp ON increased its stake in Williams Companies by 190.3% during 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. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA bought a new stake in Williams Companies during the 2nd quarter valued at about $354,184,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its holdings 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 worth $1,281,875,000 after buying an additional 3,748,126 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 295.7% in the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,446,915 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $268,723,000 after buying an additional 3,323,012 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on WMB shares. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $81.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 price objective on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Williams Companies from $88.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Williams Companies from $78.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $85.60.

Williams Companies Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE WMB opened at $75.25 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $73.38 and its 200-day moving average price is $73.07. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52-week low of $55.82 and a 52-week high of $80.07. The company has a market cap of $92.05 billion, a PE ratio of 29.98, a PEG ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 0.59. 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 released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.50. The firm had revenue of $3.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.83 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 25.17% and a return on equity of 18.49%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.46 earnings per share. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.350-2.350 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.43 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 11th will be given a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 11th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is 83.67%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 13,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.87, for a total transaction of $973,310.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 268,159 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,077,064.33. The trade was a 4.62% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 17,000 shares of company stock worth $1,262,930. 0.47% of the stock is currently 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.