South Shore Capital Advisors Invests $1.13 Million in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

South Shore Capital Advisors acquired a new position in Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 18,851 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,133,000. Williams Companies accounts for 0.8% of South Shore Capital Advisors’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest position.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in WMB. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 40.9% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 13,680 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $740,000 after purchasing an additional 3,969 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in Williams Companies by 5.5% during the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 4,635 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $291,000 after acquiring an additional 242 shares during the period. Gabelli Funds LLC increased its stake in Williams Companies by 56.7% during the second quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 243,100 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $15,269,000 after acquiring an additional 88,000 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its stake in Williams Companies by 13.8% during the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,380,115 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $86,685,000 after acquiring an additional 167,673 shares during the period. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC increased its stake in Williams Companies by 12.1% during the second quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 212,487 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $13,346,000 after acquiring an additional 22,938 shares during the period. 86.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Williams Companies news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 27,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.92, for a total transaction of $1,968,840.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 293,159 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,377,154.28. This represents a 8.43% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Mary A. Hausman sold 10,107 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.91, for a total value of $757,115.37. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 17,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,290,699.30. This represents a 36.97% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 53,369 shares of company stock valued at $3,912,512 over the last quarter. 0.44% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Williams Companies Stock Up 0.8%

Shares of WMB opened at $72.59 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $88.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.92, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83, a current ratio of 0.53 and a quick ratio of 0.48. Williams Companies, Inc. has a one year low of $51.58 and a one year high of $76.87. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $72.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $64.74.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 10th. The pipeline company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.57 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.10 billion. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 17.32% and a net margin of 21.90%.During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.47 earnings per share. Williams Companies has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.200-2.380 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th were issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 13th. This is an increase from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 98.13%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WMB has been the topic of several research reports. Citigroup boosted their price target on Williams Companies from $70.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Williams Companies from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Zacks Research upgraded Williams Companies from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Williams Companies from $78.00 to $89.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Williams Companies from $80.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $77.33.

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.