Polaris Capital Management LLC Sells 13,500 Shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Polaris Capital Management LLC trimmed its stake in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 479,700 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 13,500 shares during the period. Williams Companies makes up approximately 2.0% of Polaris Capital Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd biggest holding. Polaris Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $30,389,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of WMB. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Williams Companies in the 2nd quarter worth $765,164,000. BROOKFIELD Corp ON lifted its holdings in shares of Williams Companies by 190.3% during the 2nd quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 12,028,186 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $755,490,000 after acquiring an additional 7,884,730 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in Williams Companies by 27.3% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 14,417,821 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $905,583,000 after acquiring an additional 3,089,390 shares in the last quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership increased its stake in Williams Companies by 39.0% in the second quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 6,954,733 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $436,827,000 after acquiring an additional 1,950,485 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Williams Companies by 1.5% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 133,075,340 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $8,358,462,000 after purchasing an additional 1,912,156 shares in the last quarter. 86.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on WMB shares. Tudor Pickering upgraded Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 1st. Zacks Research cut shares of Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 6th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Monday, December 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $59.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Monday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $68.29.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of Williams Companies stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.90, for a total value of $123,800.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 297,545 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,418,035.50. This trade represents a 0.67% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Williams Companies Trading Down 1.3%

Shares of WMB opened at $59.55 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $72.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.69, a PEG ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 0.64. Williams Companies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $51.58 and a twelve month high of $65.55. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $59.97 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $59.65.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $2.92 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.87 billion. Williams Companies had a net margin of 20.61% and a return on equity of 16.74%. Williams Companies’s revenue was up 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.43 EPS. Williams Companies has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.010-2.190 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 12th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 12th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.4%. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is presently 103.09%.

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.