Hilltop Holdings Inc. Sells 19,004 Shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Hilltop Holdings Inc. cut its stake in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 46.0% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 22,273 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 19,004 shares during the period. Hilltop Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $1,621,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Williams Companies by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,963,343 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $8,052,537,000 after purchasing an additional 883,245 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 67,981,106 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $4,086,344,000 after buying an additional 1,296,991 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 46,053,873 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,768,298,000 after buying an additional 2,100,164 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 11.0% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 33,572,067 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $2,018,017,000 after buying an additional 3,314,851 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 21.3% in the fourth quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 21,325,482 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,281,875,000 after buying an additional 3,748,126 shares in the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce upped their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “outperformer” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $78.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $98.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $82.00 target price on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $83.56.

Williams Companies Stock Down 1.7%

WMB opened at $73.96 on Friday. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1-year low of $55.82 and a 1-year high of $80.07. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $74.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $71.81. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99. The stock has a market cap of $90.34 billion, a PE ratio of 32.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 0.57.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The pipeline company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.10. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 18.34% and a net margin of 23.39%.The business had revenue of $3.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.28 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 12th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 12th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 92.11%.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Glen G. Jasek sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.15, for a total value of $195,375.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 54,101 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,227,993.15. This represents a 4.42% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Larry C. Larsen sold 12,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.48, for a total transaction of $917,760.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 98,219 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,511,789.12. This trade represents a 10.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 68,500 shares of company stock worth $5,182,655. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.