Vise Technologies Inc. Purchases Shares of 41,250 Williams Companies, Inc. (The) $WMB

Vise Technologies Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Williams Companies, Inc. (The) (NYSE:WMB) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 41,250 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,591,000.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Williams Companies during the first quarter worth $335,419,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in Williams Companies by 45.0% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 11,339,078 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $677,623,000 after purchasing an additional 3,519,370 shares during the period. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. increased its position in Williams Companies by 34.0% during the first quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 11,287,921 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $674,566,000 after buying an additional 2,861,988 shares during the last quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC increased its position in Williams Companies by 275.7% during the first quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 2,609,318 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $155,933,000 after buying an additional 1,914,730 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Williams Companies by 6.0% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 29,624,104 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,770,336,000 after buying an additional 1,680,477 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Williams Companies

In other news, SVP Terrance Lane Wilson sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.62, for a total transaction of $115,240.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 311,645 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,956,984.90. This represents a 0.64% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Zacks Research lowered Williams Companies from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Friday, October 17th. CIBC raised shares of Williams Companies from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and set a $64.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 15th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $63.00 target price on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Williams Companies from $72.00 to $70.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Williams Companies in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $67.86.

Williams Companies Trading Up 1.7%

Shares of WMB stock opened at $60.58 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $60.43 and a 200 day simple moving average of $59.42. Williams Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $51.58 and a 1 year high of $65.55. The company has a current ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73. The stock has a market cap of $73.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.63.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last released its earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The pipeline company reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($0.02). Williams Companies had a net margin of 21.63% and a return on equity of 16.23%. The company had revenue of $2.92 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.87 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.43 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Williams Companies has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.010-2.190 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Williams Companies, Inc. will post 2.08 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, December 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 12th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 12th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 103.09%.

About Williams Companies

The Williams Companies, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an energy infrastructure company primarily in the United States. It operates through Transmission & Gulf of Mexico, Northeast G&P, West, and Gas & NGL Marketing Services segments. The Transmission & Gulf of Mexico segment comprises natural gas pipelines; Transco, Northwest pipeline, MountainWest, and related natural gas storage facilities; and natural gas gathering and processing, and crude oil production handling and transportation assets in the Gulf Coast region.