Great Lakes Advisors LLC Acquires Shares of 48,532 Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Great Lakes Advisors LLC bought a new position in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 48,532 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,608,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in WMB. Cynosure Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Williams Companies during the 2nd quarter worth $647,000. Gabelli Funds LLC raised its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 261,000 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $15,689,000 after buying an additional 17,900 shares in the last quarter. SIR Capital Management L.P. lifted its position in Williams Companies by 40.0% in the 4th quarter. SIR Capital Management L.P. now owns 525,232 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $31,572,000 after buying an additional 150,032 shares during the last quarter. Stephens Inc. AR lifted its position in Williams Companies by 8.9% in the 4th quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 164,900 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $9,912,000 after buying an additional 13,438 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mediolanum International Funds Ltd boosted its stake in Williams Companies by 688.5% in the first quarter. Mediolanum International Funds Ltd now owns 479,126 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $34,722,000 after buying an additional 418,365 shares in the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 13,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.87, for a total transaction 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. This represents a 4.62% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 17,000 shares of company stock worth $1,262,930. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on WMB shares. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on Williams Companies from $83.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Williams Companies from $99.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Scotiabank increased their target price on Williams Companies from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Three 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $85.60.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Shares of Williams Companies stock opened at $71.86 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83. The company has a market cap of $87.90 billion, a PE ratio of 28.63, a P/E/G ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 0.58. The business has a 50 day moving average of $73.40 and a 200 day moving average of $73.15. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $56.08 and a 52 week high of $80.07.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.50. The business had revenue of $3.05 billion for 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 revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.46 earnings per share. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.350-2.350 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 11th will be given a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 11th. Williams Companies’s payout ratio is presently 83.67%.

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.