Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. Acquires Shares of 15,876 Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. acquired a new stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 15,876 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,180,000.

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

Insider Activity

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 stock was 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders sold 17,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,262,930 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Price Performance

Williams Companies stock opened at $71.02 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization 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. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $73.37 and its 200 day moving average price is $73.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.48. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $56.08 and a 1 year high of $80.07.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50. The company 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 revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior 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 anticipate that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 11th will be given a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 11th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 83.67%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $73.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce lifted their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperformer” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 8th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on shares of Williams Companies from $87.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Williams Companies from $88.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Three 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Williams Companies has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $85.60.

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.