Nitor Capital Management LLC Buys New Shares in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Nitor Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 7,755 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $577,000. Williams Companies accounts for 0.4% of Nitor Capital Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 16th biggest holding.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WMB. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 40.9% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 13,680 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $740,000 after buying an additional 3,969 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 5.5% during the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 4,635 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $291,000 after acquiring an additional 242 shares during the period. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina boosted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 2.1% in the second quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 568,928 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $35,734,000 after acquiring an additional 11,926 shares during the last quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC boosted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 3.0% in the second quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC now owns 10,248 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $644,000 after acquiring an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 160.1% in the second quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 165,035 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $10,366,000 after purchasing an additional 101,574 shares during the period. 86.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other 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 transaction of $973,310.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 268,159 shares in the company, valued at $20,077,064.33. This trade represents a 4.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders have sold a total of 17,000 shares of company stock worth $1,262,930 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on WMB shares. 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. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce boosted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperformer” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price objective on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Williams Companies from $78.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, August 8th. Three research 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, Williams Companies has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $85.60.

Williams Companies Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of WMB opened at $70.71 on Monday. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12 month low of $56.08 and a 12 month high of $80.07. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $73.38 and its two-hundred day moving average is $73.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83, a current ratio of 0.48 and a quick ratio of 0.43. The stock has a market cap of $86.49 billion, a PE ratio of 28.17, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 0.59.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50. The business had revenue of $3.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.83 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 18.49% and a net margin of 25.17%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.46 earnings per share. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.350-2.350 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

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 $0.525 dividend. 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 (DPR) is 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.