Legal & General Group Plc Makes New $596.08 Million Investment in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 8,018,260 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $596,077,000. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.66% of Williams Companies at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Main Street Group LTD bought a new position in shares of Williams Companies during the first quarter valued at $26,000. Allied Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. Bayforest Capital Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Williams Companies in the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 59.4% in the 1st quarter. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC now owns 416 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 155 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Motiv8 Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Williams Companies during the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $88.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. 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 research note on Wednesday, August 12th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $99.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 18th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce lifted their target price 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. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their target price on Williams Companies from $81.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $85.60.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 13,000 shares of the business’s 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 268,159 shares in the company, valued at $20,077,064.33. The trade was a 4.62% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In the last three months, insiders have sold 17,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,262,930. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Stock Up 0.7%

Shares of NYSE:WMB opened at $71.02 on Tuesday. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 12 month low of $56.08 and a 12 month high of $80.07. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $73.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $73.20. 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 firm has a market cap of $86.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.29, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 0.59.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting 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 previous year, the firm posted $0.46 earnings per share. The company’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, research analysts forecast that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Investors of record on Friday, September 11th will be issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 11th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.0%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 83.67%.

Williams Companies 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.